July 19 (UPI) — Rep. George Santons asked a New York judge to relax some of the conditions imposed on him while out on bail for a 13-count federal indictment.
In a letter dated Wednesday, lawyers for Santos, R-N.Y., asked Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York Anne Shields to grant him more freedom to travel around the Washington, D.C., area.
“I respectfully request to modify the conditions of my client’s release, by extending the geographical area in which my client can travel, without providing advance notice to the government and pretrial services, to include a thirty-mile radius of the District of Columbia,” lawyer Joseph W. Murray wrote in the letter, before laying out his reasons over why the judge should grant the request.
Santos in May pleaded not guilty to the indictment, which charges him with wire fraud, money laundering, theft, and lying to Congress.
He was taken into custody and released on a $500,000 bond.
In asking for new conditions, Murray points out Santos surrendered voluntarily.
“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 in his plea to the judge.
“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.”
Santos, a first-term congressman, made his first court appearance at the end of June.
He repeatedly fought to have the names of those responsible for posting his half-million-dollar bail shielded from the public, but a judge ruled against those attempts.
Court documents later revealed his aunt and father posted his bond.
