Late last year, as Rep. George Santos’ prolific lies were exposed, the New York Republican’s press secretary quit. On Wednesday, in the wake of the congressman’s criminal indictment, his communications director resigned, too.

After being caught on camera saying that Santos is “not a good person,” Naysa Woomer added in her resignation letter, “Unfortunately, you never took one point of professional advice given.”

The news, however, was not all bad for the beleaguered GOP lawmaker. As NBC News reported, Santos’ party managed to dodge a resolution intended to force him from Congress.

The House voted Wednesday evening to refer a Democratic-sponsored resolution to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., to the Ethics Committee. By referring the matter to the House Committee on Ethics, which has been investigating Santos since early March, Republicans for now avoided a vote on the resolution itself, which was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif.

The final tally was 221 to 204, and literally zero Republicans broke ranks. (Several Democrats who serve on the House Ethics Committee voted “present.”)

The California Democrat who introduced the expulsion resolution called the GOP’s approach a “cop out.” Garcia went on to tell reporters, “This is already in the Ethics Committee. We want an actual vote on the expulsion.”

His response has the benefit of being true. The Ethics panel opened an investigation into Santos months ago, before the Justice Department charged the Republican with a variety of crimes — including wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds — and before Santos confessed to theft as part of an agreement with prosecutors in Brazil.

As we discussed yesterday, Garcia was effectively trying to call the question: Would GOP lawmakers vote to expel a scandal-plagued member of their own party, or would they agree to keep around a proven liar and an accused felon who last week confessed to theft?

As it turns out, House Republican leaders gave their members a third option: Punt the whole mess to the Ethics Committee, giving the party a temporary reprieve.

As the process moves forward, there’s one other angle worth keeping an eye on. As NBC News’ report added, Rep. Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, suggested that the Ethics Committee would not act on the resolution and would instead defer to the Justice Department, making yesterday’s developments moot.

“Prosecutors are going to ask the Ethics Committee to pause and let their prosecution go first,” the New York Democrat said. “That’s what I did for 10 years. That is the nature of how these things work. And traditionally, the Ethics Committee will defer to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution, and [House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy knows that.”

Goldman’s comments made sense and reflected common practice, but a PunchBowl News report added a twist this morning.

According to the reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, federal prosecutors have, in fact, asked House Ethics Committee members to hold off on its own probe into Santos, so as to not interfere with the Justice Department’s investigation.

But while the panel has traditionally deferred to law enforcement, PunchBowl News reported that the committee in this case is “refusing to comply with DOJ’s request,” in part because McCarthy wants the Ethics Committee “to move forward on a Santos probe no matter what federal prosecutors are doing.”

I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this one.