Dem
51
GOP
49
Rep. "George Santos" (R-NY) has been indicted on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, has been arraigned, and has posted $500,000 bond. He was apparently unable to swing the bond all by himself, and apparently had two co-signers. We say "apparently" because the Representative took steps to hide the identity of his benefactors.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields, who quite rightly thinks there is a compelling public interest in knowing to whom a sitting congressman owes a big, big favor, does not believe the secrecy "Santos" wants is apropos. And so, yesterday she ordered that the identity of the co-signers be revealed. The Judge's order, and the two names, remain under seal until Friday in order to give the congressman a chance to appeal. Presumably he will do so.
We mention this news for two reasons. First, it is very clear that the two names would reflect badly on "Santos," one way or another, either making him look silly or shady or something else. That affords an opportunity to speculate as to who it might be. Here are some possibilities that might well embarrass him:
It's surely one of these, right? Ok, if you want a real guess, we'll go with any two of these three: John Catsimatidis, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.
The second reason we bring this up is that "Santos" said yesterday that if he cannot keep the identity of his guarantors secret, he would prefer to forfeit the bond and go to jail rather than reveal their identities. He is truth-challenged, of course, and so he might not really mean it. But if he does, he could end up away from Washington for months on end. This would have the same effect on Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) perilous math (see above for more) as expelling "Santos" would. (Z)