The Hope Florida scandal is the gift that keeps on giving. The so-called charity run by Gov. Ron DeSantis' wife, Casey, is now at the center of a rare event that is prompting even Republicans to denounce one of their own.
The latest person to be confused by his involvement with the Florida Hope Foundation is former Florida Deputy Attorney General John Gard, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as a federal judge in the Middle District of Florida. In announcing his nomination, Trump made his usual vague remarks. mumbling about how good his own choices were and how Guard “passionately” served Florida as the state's deputy attorney general and assistant U.S. attorney.
Trump must have simply forgotten to mention the Guard's participation in scheme illegally siphon millions of dollars from Medicaid settlement funds.
The DeSantis duo ran a small scam in which they took $10 million in funds from a Medicaid fraud settlement (money belonging to Florida taxpayers) and funneled it to the Hope Florida Fund so that Hope Florida could give it to some DeSantis-affiliated PAC created to campaign against the vote. Florida's initiative to legalize recreational marijuana, which then in turn redirected it to the Florida Republican Party.
Did you catch it all? It's kind of a tricky little maneuver, so thank god the Guardian was there to create and unsubscribe settlement, right? There are the obligatory emails in which he expressed personal concerns about the arrangement, but not a word about how sending Medicaid money to Hope Florida was problematic.
It turns out that the Guard and the DeSantis clan may have committed a minor minor crime with this scheme, and the whole thing is now the subject of a criminal investigation, with the Guard reportedly received a subpoena earlier this month.
Of course, by the time Trump appointed the Guard, all of this had already happened. already spilled to an open place. Trump clearly thought Guard could weather the storm on this issue, but now his appointment stalled because it finally occurred to Trump that this might mean the Guard would not be confirmed by the Senate
Let's be honest: Trump doesn't care that the Guard was involved in a scheme to divert taxpayer dollars, since that's probably already a requirement for Trump appointees. Apparently Trump is now concerned that even this compliant Senate has its limits.
Related | Florida agency threatens press to protect DeSantis' controversial charity
Even Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott did something. tough talk about how Gard will have to answer for his involvement in Hope Florida, funny thing coming from the dude who ran up to largest Medicare the fine for fraud always and now cries that it was political persecution.
Needless to say, the First Lady of Florida is confident that this is an unfair ambush, and how dare anyone criticize her opportunistic little charity that I just help people!
As for Governor DeSantis? Spending 10 million taxpayer dollars is not cool. You know what's cool? Abstraction $40 million taxpayer money to advance his party's position on a ballot initiative.
Trump cannot bypass the Senate and appoint the Guard the way he can—or tries—through temporary and acting appointments. So he will either have to withdraw Gard's nomination or see if he can threaten enough GOP senators to get Gard through.
What's a few million taxpayer dollars to friends, right?
