Rep. Santos’ father and aunt done it

Mystery of $500K bond co-signers for embattled congressman answered by court documents

BY CAMERYN OAKES

Embattled U.S. Rep. George Santos was bailed out of jail by two unknown individuals in May.

After weeks of refusing to reveal the names and fghting federal court rulings, court documents unsealed Thursday reveal the co-signers to be his father and aunt.

Santos’ father Gercino dos Santos Jr. and his aunt Elma Preven signed a $500,000 unsecured bond that bailed the representative out of jail after his arrest for 13 federal charges.

As the bond is unsecured, Santos’ father and aunt did not have to put down any cash or property to bail out the representative.

The two family members are responsible for Santos to appear in court and follow the terms of his release. If he does not, they would then be responsible for paying the $500,000 bond.

Under his bond agreement, Santos, who is running for re-election, may travel between New York and Washington, D.C., but must obtain advance permission for other trips.

For weeks, the representative and his attorney have fought the unsealing of the co-signers names, saying that Santos would rather go to jail than release their names.

Santos, infamous for his deception that resulted in his election to federal ofce, pleaded not guilty last month to a 13-count federal indictment.

This included seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to Congress.

The 3rd District representative was arrested following the charges and released on a $500,000 bail bond that was co-signed by three individuals. Santos refused to release the names of the individuals, one of which repealed their sponsorship due to media coverage of the arrest.

News outlets, such as the AP and The New York Times, requested for the names of the co-signers to be released for transparency in the representative’s afairs.

A federal court ruling made by Federal Magistrate Judge Anne Shields determined that Santos had to reveal the names of the co-signers on his $500,000 bond.

Santos and his attorney Joseph Murray, whose law ofce is located in Great Neck, fought the ruling through a June 9 appeal.

The appeal letter from Murray stated that a “media frenzy” has ensued in the wake of 13 federal fraud charges granted fled on May 9 against Santos and his arrest the following day.

“These attacks have been extremely angry, anti-gay, anti-Republican and all around anti-social,” Murray states in the letter. “Moreover, even the government recognizes the unique and potentially dangerous/ harassing environment that Defendant has been subjected to in that the government was so kind to ofer assistance for Defendant entering the courthouse on May 10, 2023, by avoiding the mass of media that had appeared at the courthouse.”

Murray stated in the letter that releasing the names of the co-signers of his bail bond would subject them to the same harassment. He said due to the political climate, the threat of political violence, the co-signers’ ages and employment, their privacy interests are “more concerning.”

He said that if their names are released, it is “very likely” the co-signers, who we now know are Santos’ father and aunt, will withdraw as well land may subject Santos to pretrial detention and more onerous conditions.

https://theisland360.com

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