At the time, Kevin McCarthy, who was still House speaker, argued that Mr. Santos deserved a chance to defend himself in court. Detractors also charged that the then-speaker wanted to keep Mr. Santos’s vote in a narrowly divided House. Though several of the New York Republicans had already called for him to resign by then, Mr. McCarthy convinced all of them — including Mr. D’Esposito — to divert the resolution to the House Ethics Committee for further consideration.
But Mr. D’Esposito and his allies said on Wednesday that two things had since changed, creating a potentially perilous situation for Mr. Santos.