Judge agrees to unseal names of co-signers who paid $500,000 bail for George Santos
Cami Mondeaux
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A federal judge in New York has agreed to unseal the identities of three people who co-signed Rep. George Santos’s (R-NY) $500,000 bond after the freshman lawmaker was indicted on criminal charges last month.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields granted the request on Tuesday, giving Santos until noon on Friday to appeal her decision. The names of the guarantors will remain under seal until then, according to the ruling.
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The decision comes after several media organizations pushed the judge to reveal the names of the three individuals who helped secure Santos’s bail after he was charged on 13 criminal counts in May. Defense attorneys for Santos filed a motion on Monday requesting the court keep the records sealed, arguing the guarantors would likely “suffer great distress, may lose their jobs, and God forbid, may suffer physical injury” if they were publicly identified.
“There is little doubt that the suretors will suffer some unnecessary form of retaliation if their identities and employment are revealed,” the lawyers wrote.
Instead, the lawyers argued that Santos would rather be arrested and “surrender to pretrial detainment” than name the guarantors. Santos has not publicly reacted to Shields’s decision, and a spokesperson for the congressman has not yet responded to a request from the Washington Examiner.
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Lawmakers on the House Ethics Committee have also requested the names of the individuals as part of an inquiry into the payment, although Santos’s legal team has not provided that information, according to court filings. The Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the matter after the House voted to refer it to the panel, temporarily saving Santos from a high-profile expulsion.
Santos was released on a $500,000 bond after he was indicted by the Justice Department on seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. Santos has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denounced the allegations as being politically motivated.