George Santos is so adamant about protecting the identity of the anonymous donors who paid his $500,000 bail that he actually had his lawyers send a letter to the judge in his fraud case where the freshman congressman claimed he’d go to jail before outing his benefactors.
“Here in the instant case, the suretors are likely to suffer great distress, may lose their jobs, and God forbid, may suffer physical injury,” Santos’ lawyer Joseph Murray wrote to Judge Anne Shields. “My client would rather surrender to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors to what will inevitably come.”
Murray buttressed his argument by claiming that both he and Santos have been the target of death threats over the identity of the bail donors.
Via Insider:
“The fact that someone emailed me my own letter back to me soon after I filed it with the Court, tells us that they are just ready and waiting to pounce,” the lawyer wrote. “A few hours later on Friday, June 2, 2023, I received a call wherein a male voice just shouted what sounded like, ‘Who paid Santos’ bond?’ Again, they are just waiting to pounce on the suretors.”
Judge Shields didn’t buy it. On Tuesday, she ordered that the identities of Santos’ backers must be unsealed and gave the congressman a “brisk schedule” to appeal that decision, according to Law and Crime managing editor Adam Klasfeld.
The identities of Rep. George Santos's bond co-signers must be UNSEALED, a magistrate judge ruled.
Santos has a brisk schedule for an appeal.
Docket entry below. pic.twitter.com/sCqMsQoVdD
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) June 6, 2023
(Via Insider, Adam Klasfeld on Twitter)