Judge Says Santos Bond Sponsors Can Be Named

If Rep. George Santos is a man of his word—and the charges against him suggest that's a big "if"—there's a chance that he could be in jail within days. A federal judge has rejected the Republican congressman's effort to keep the identifies of the three people who guaranteed his $500,000 bond on 13 fraud-related charges last month secret, the Guardian reports. On Monday, lawyers for Santos said he would rather go to jail than have the identities of the the guarantors made public.

A motion from Santos' lawyers said the bond sponsors are likely to suffer "some unnecessary form of retaliation" if their identifies are made public. US Magistrate Judge Anne Shields gave Santos a deadline of noon Friday to appeal the ruling and said the names should remain sealed until then, the Hill reports. The New York Times—one of the media organizations that requested the release of the bail cosigners' identities—reports that the House Ethics Committee is already investigating the bail arrangement, according to a letter shown in court Monday by a Santos attorney. (More George Santos stories.)