A federal judge agreed to loosen Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) travel restrictions as the freshman lawmaker awaits trial on more than a dozen criminal charges.
Santos was charged with 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying to the U.S. House of Representatives in May. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
The Republican lawmaker was released from custody ahead of trial on a $500,000 bond, but was directed to notify the government if he planned to travel anywhere in the continental U.S. outside of New York City, Long Island or Washington, D.C.
To prevent “unnecessary notifications” of Santos’s travels, his lawyer Joseph Murray asked the court Wednesday morning to allow Santos to travel up to 30 miles outside D.C.
“In light of the small geographical area of the District of Columbia, there is a frequent
need to travel outside the District of Columbia for usual and customary functions of someone
who lives and works in the District of Columbia, such as dining, shopping, meetings, events, and
even use of the local airports,” Murray wrote.
“This has resulted in unnecessary notifications which can easily be remedied by extending the geographical area in which my client can freely move about without providing prior notice, to include a thirty-mile radius around the District of Columbia,” he continued.
Neither prosecutors nor pretrial services took issue with Santos’s request. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields, who is overseeing Santos’s case, agreed to allow the Republican lawmaker to travel farther without notifying the court Wednesday afternoon.
New York prosecutors allege that Santos misled donors and misrepresented his finances to the public and government agencies.
“This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a May statement announcing Santos’s indictment. “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.”
A month before his arrest, Santos announced his reelection bid for New York’s 3rd congressional district despite his implication in several state and federal investigations, plus an inquiry from the House Ethics Committee.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called for his resignation from Congress, which Santos has rebuffed.