A New York federal judge ordered the unsealing of the identities of two people who cosigned a $500,000 unsecured bond for Rep. George Santos (R-NY) in his criminal fraud case — one day after the lying congressman’s lawyer said his client would rather go to jail than give up the information.
US Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields ruled Tuesday that the names of the bond suretors who helped secure the release the indicted Long Island congressman before his trial will be unsealed at noon Friday — unless an appeal comes from Santos’ legal team before then.
The 34-year-old Republican’s attorney, Joseph Murray, petitioned Shields on Monday to shield access to the suretors’ identities, saying they may “suffer great distress” at their public outing, including potentially losing their jobs or being physically harmed.
“My client would rather surrender to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors to what will inevitably come,” he wrote in a letter to the judge.
Murray also requested that the guarantors be given time to withdraw their names as cosigners if they are unmasked, citing death threats that the representative’s staff have fielded since his release.
Last month, an attorney for the New York Times and a separate legal firm representing other news outlets such as the Washington Post and CNN had requested the identities be disclosed.
“Both the federal common law and First Amendment endow the public with a presumptive right of access to judicial proceedings and records, including to bond proceedings,” Times senior counsel Dana Green wrote in a May 23 letter to US District Judge Joanna Seybert, who is overseeing the case.
The truth-challenged Santos pleaded not guilty May 10 to 13 counts, including embezzling $50,000 in campaign money for personal expenses, misrepresenting himself to donors, lying to Congress about his income and cheating to obtain COVID unemployment funds.
Santos has admitted he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience.
He was released on bond following an initial hearing. The following day, news outlets first asked Seybert to reveal the Santos suretors.
The lying Long Island rep has ignored calls for his resignation and called the indictment a “witch hunt.”
In March, he quietly filed to run for re-election in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, despite the looming federal case against him and a separate referral to the House Ethics Committee, which has also requested the names of the guarantors.
Since the Santos bond is unsecured, his cosigners did not have to immediately pay on his behalf but would be forced to foot the bill if he skips town.
The conditions of Santos’ release stipulate that his travel must be confined to the tri-state area and Washington, DC, absent special permission.
Santos is facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The next hearing in the case is set for June 30.