Rep. George Santos (R-NY) would rather go to jail than reveal the identities of the people who cosigned the $500,000 bond in his criminal case, his attorney wrote in a court filing.
A grand jury indicted Santos last month on 13 criminal charges including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on bond.
But his suretors never appeared in open court to sign his bond. Several media outlets have since filed motions seeking to publicly released the names of the people who paid the $500,000 bond to keep Santos out of jail.
In a letter Monday night, Santos’ attorney, Joseph Murray, begged Long Island Federal Court Magistrate Judge Anne Shields to keep the names secret arguing that they could “suffer great distress,” including possible job losses and “may suffer physical injury” if their names are released to the public, the Associated Press reported.
“If this Court is so inclined to unseal the suretors, we truly fear for their health, safety and well being,” Murray wrote. “My client would rather surrender to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors to what will inevitably come.”
Murray wrote that he has faced harassment and death threats since Santos’ indictment and the same would happen to the suretors. He quoted a phone call he received on June 2 in which “a male voice just shouted what sounded like, ‘Who paid Santos’ bond?'”
“Again, they are just waiting to pounce on the suretors,” Murray added.
Prosecutors have not taken a position on whether or not the identities of the suretors should be released.
Santos is due back in court later this month.
