Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., speaks to reporters after a vote to send a resolution to the Ethics panel in an try and expel him from the House, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, in Washington, DC.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images
The identities of the three individuals who guaranteed Rep. George Santos’ $500,000 bond in his criminal fraud case should be revealed, a federal magistrate judge ordered Tuesday.
But Santos, the embattled freshman Republican lawmaker from Recent York who was charged last month with an array of monetary crimes, has until noon on Friday to appeal the choice, Magistrate Judge Anne Shields ordered.
Santos, 34, has pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding his campaign supporters, lying to acquire unemployment money and making false statements on his congressional disclosure forms.
He has vowed to not resign, whilst a growing chorus of his own Republican colleagues have urged him to step down. Those calls began even before Santos took office in January, after The Recent York Times published a bombshell report questioning key details of the biography that Santos had presented on the campaign trail.
Santos admitted lying about his skilled background and education, but he has denied other wrongdoing and pushed back on subsequent damning reporting about his business activities.
Santos’ lawyer, Joseph Murray, had asked the court Monday to disclaim requests from multiple news outlets to unseal the names of the bond guarantors, arguing there have been fears over their “health, safety and well being.”
“My client would moderately give up to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors to what’s going to inevitably come,” Murray wrote in a court filing.
Murray didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment on the most recent court order.
The judge’s decision was filed under seal with a view to allow Santos to file his appeal.
The Times argued last month in U.S. District Court on Long Island that the general public should have the ability to access the bond proceedings in Santos’ case. Lawyers for the newspaper noted that three yet-to-be-identified people committed large sums of cash to make sure Santos stays free, a situation that “presents an obvious opportunity for political influence” over an elected official.
“That risk is further heightened by the incontrovertible fact that the very crimes Rep. Santos has been charged with involve abusing the political process for private gain,” lawyers for the Times noted.
A consortium of other news outlets, including NBC News, joined the Times’ call two days later, arguing the First Amendment and customary law granted the general public’s right to know the suretors’ identities.
