George Santos says his family helped save him. (Don’t ask who.)

Representative George Santos on Friday appealed the decision of a federal magistrate who ordered the release of the names of the people who helped him get out of federal custody, suggesting the individuals were family members.

The identities of Mr. Santos’ bailiffs have been the subject of intense interest from both the news media and the House Ethics Committee, which last month requested that Mr. Santos release their names so that it could assess whether Mr. $500,000 violated House ethics rules regarding gifts.

In documents filed with the Eastern District of New York on Friday, Mr. Santos’ attorney, Joseph Murray, argued that Mr. Santos had not violated ethical rules, citing an exception for family members and suggesting that the sureties in fell into that category. Mr Santos has argued that releasing the individuals’ names would expose them to attacks and intimidation.

“The defendant has essentially publicly disclosed that the sureties are family members and not lobbyists, donors or others seeking to influence the defendant,” Mr Murray wrote in his motion, which came days after Judge Anne Y. Shields ordered that the names had to be unsealed.

It remains to be seen how his appeal to Judge Joanna Seybert will be received.

Mr. Santos, a Republican representing Long Island and parts of Queens, faces 13 felony counts, including money laundering and bank fraud. He has pleaded not guilty.

A group of media organizations, including The New York Times, last month called for the identities of the people who guaranteed Mr. Santos’ bail to be revealed. The coalition argued that the names of those individuals were a matter of public interest, especially given Mr. Santos’ position in Congress and the possibility that the bail settlement could be an inappropriate political gift.

In a motion filed Monday, Mr. Murray wrote a response he wrote to the Ethics Committee’s questions about bail, pointing to the House’s ethical rules that allow gifts from relatives. At the time, it wasn’t clear if he was talking about some or all of the certainties. He was more explicit in Friday’s motion.

Mr Murray said he would not oppose a targeted unsealing that would confirm to the public and to House investigators that Mr Santos’s bail bondsmen were relatives, without fully disclosing their names or exact relationships to Mr Santos. to make.

While the bail bondsmen have not handed over any real money, they will be on the hook for the $500,000 if Mr. Santos flees prosecution. And while the ethics committee hasn’t issued specific guidance on bail bonds, experts suggested the arrangement could violate house gift rules if the bail bondsmen weren’t immediate family members, spouses, extended family, or in-laws.

Mr. Santos, 34, has a younger sister, Tiffany Santos, who lives in New York and supports her brother’s political career. Ms. Santos made headlines of her own after donating thousands of dollars to her brother’s campaign despite owing tens of thousands of dollars in back rent. Ms. Santos was also the president of a PAC in New York State called Rise NY that promoted Mr. Santos and whose handling of funds has raised questions.

His father, Gercino dos Santos Jr., also lives in New York. On contributions to his son’s congressional campaign, he listed his occupation as painter, construction, or retired.

Mr. Santos’ mother, Fatima Devolder, died in 2016 after a battle with cancer. Mrs. Devolder featured prominently in her son’s campaign biographies, and many of his previous claims about her, including links to the September 11 attacks, have received significant attention.

Mr. Santos has also said he has a husband, whom he mentioned in a 2020 interview Matthew Gerardand that the two got married on Long Island in November 2021.

In his motion, Mr Murray again said that one of Mr Santos’s first three sureties had already dropped out amid the intense media scrutiny, and that he risked losing the remaining two if their identities were released. If that happened, he argued, Mr. Santos “might be subject to harsher terms of release or remand.”