The Hope Florida scandal is the gift that keeps on giving. A so-called charity run by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife, Casey, is now at the center of a rare event spurring even Republicans to condemn one of their own. 

The latest person to get tripped up by his involvement with the Hope Florida Foundation is former Florida Deputy Attorney General John Guard, who President Donald Trump has nominated for a federal judgeship in the Middle District of Florida. In announcing the nomination, Trump did his usual vague burbling about how great his own pick was and how Guard “passionately” served Florida as a state deputy attorney general and an assistant U.S. attorney. 

Trump must have just forgotten to mention Guard’s participation in a scheme to illegally divert millions of dollars in Medicaid settlement funds.

FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, looks on as his wife Casey DeSantis speaks at a campaign event in Bluffton, S.C., June 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis looks on as his wife Casey DeSantis speaks at a campaign event in Bluffton, South Carolina, on June 2, 2023.

The DeSantis Duo engaged in a little scam where they took $10 million of Medicaid fraud settlement money—money which belongs to Florida taxpayers—and funneled it to Hope Florida Foundation so that Hope Florida could funnel it on over to some DeSantis-related PACs set up to campaign against Florida’s ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana, who then in turn funneled it on over to the Florida state Republican Party. 

Did you catch all that? It’s sort of a complicated little maneuver, so thank god that Guard was there to craft and sign off on the settlement, right? There are the obligatory emails where he expressed private misgivings about the arrangement, but not a word about how sending Medicaid money to Hope Florida was problematic. 

Turns out that Guard and the DeSantis clan may have done a little light crime-ing with this scheme, and the whole thing is now the subject of a criminal probe, with Guard having reportedly received a subpoena earlier this month. 

Of course, by the time Trump nominated Guard, all this stuff had already spilled into the open. Trump clearly thought Guard could weather the storm on this, but now his nomination is stalled because it finally occurred to Trump that this might mean Guard wouldn’t get confirmed by the Senate

Let’s be honest: It’s not that Trump would care that Guard was involved in a scheme to divert taxpayer dollars, as that’s probably a job requirement for Trump appointees by now. Apparently Trump is now concerned that even this rubber-stamping Senate has limits.

Related | Florida agency threatens the press to protect shady DeSantis charity

Even Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott has done some tough talking about how Guard would have to answer for his Hope Florida involvement, a hilarious thing coming from a dude who ran up the largest Medicare fraud fine ever and now cries about how it was political persecution. 

Needless to say, Florida’s first lady is sure this is an unfair ambush, and how dare anyone criticize her grifty little charity that was just helping people!

And as far as Gov. DeSantis? Diverting $10 million of taxpayer dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Diverting $40 million of taxpayer money to push your partisan stance on a ballot initiative.

Trump can’t bypass the Senate to install Guard the way he can—or tries to—via interim and acting appointments. So, he’ll either have to withdraw Guard’s nomination or see if he can threaten enough GOP senators to get Guard through. 

What’s a few million taxpayer dollars between friends, right?