SUBSCRIBE

The donors who put up Rep. George Santos' (R-NY) $500,000 bail have been revealed.

Speaking to ABC News reporters on Thursday morning, Santos said his bond cosigners are his aunt, Elma Santos Preven and his father Gercino Dos Santos. It was then confirmed by the release of the documents.

Santos' attorney Joseph Murray had previously said that the congressman would be willing to go to jail to protect their identities.

“My client would rather surrender to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors to what will inevitably come,” Murray told U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields at the beginning of June.

Santos’s lawyer explained that the reason they wanted to protect the donors has more to do with potential violence or attacks against those people.

"Given the political temperature in this country and acts of political violence that occur, the privacy interests of these suretors are far more concerning, especially considering their ages and respective employment," Murray said.

He said that Santos had already been public about the donors being family members and not political donors or lobbyists seeking influence.

But when Raw Story caught up with Santos on Capitol Hill a few weeks later, he said that he was going in a different direction.

"I'm not talking about it," he began. "There's nothing to talk about. I'll give you a heads up, I'm not appealing the latest decision from the judge. Why am I going to waste my time and the court's time? I did want to appeal, which is normal, but to take it to the Second Circuit is always time and resources. If the judge thinks that it's not going to bring any harm to my suretors, great. If something happens that's going to sit and lay on the judge."

Among the allegations that Santos faces are fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and giving false statements.

“This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York in a Justice Department release. “Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself. He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives. My Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to aggressively root out corruption and self-dealing from our community’s public institutions and hold public officials accountable to the constituents who elected them.”

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly explained that "at the height of the pandemic in 2020, George Santos allegedly applied for and received unemployment benefits while he was employed and running for Congress. As charged in the indictment, the defendant’s alleged behavior continued during his second run for Congress when he pocketed campaign contributions and used that money to pay down personal debts and buy designer clothing. This indictment is the result of a lengthy collaboration between law enforcement agencies, and I thank our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their dedication to rooting out public corruption."

Related Post