{"id":13987,"date":"2025-10-21T14:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T14:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13987\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T14:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T14:39:10","slug":"white-house-pumps-the-brakes-on-john-guard-confirmation-amid-ongoing-hope-florida-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13987\/","title":{"rendered":"White House pumps the brakes on John Guard confirmation amid ongoing Hope Florida inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House is hitting pause on Florida Deputy Attorney General John Guard\u2019s judicial confirmation for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, amid the ongoing inquiry into allegations of misspending Hope Florida funds, according to multiple reports<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guard was nominated by Trump to the bench in the Middle District, but was subpoenaed<\/a> in relation to the Hope Florida scandal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe White House doesn\u2019t have any reason to really believe that John broke the law, but it doesn\u2019t want a nasty confirmation fight about this until it all gets cleared up,\u201d a source with direct knowledge of the confirmation told Axios<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At issue is a $10 million Medicaid settlement that was sent to the Hope Florida Foundation, led by First Lady Casey DeSantis, to help Floridians rise out of poverty. But the money was instead funneled into political committees established to fight 2024 efforts to legalize adult-use cannabis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis was a vocal critic of the cannabis legalization effort, which received majority support at the ballot box but failed to reach the 60% threshold needed to pass.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Guard was among those subpoenaed over his role in the scandal. He signed the settlement, but not before privately raising concerns, according to The Miami Herald\/Tampa Bay Times<\/a>, which obtained emails documenting the conversations. The emails show Guard removed references to his office in drafts of the settlement in a series of back-and-forth conversations over the course of 22 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Guard\u2019s confirmation has been \u201cindefinitely\u201d postponed, sources told Axios that it could still go through if the investigation is completed quickly, noting that he \u201cis still qualified and the White House wants to fill this spot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even state Rep. Alex Andrade, who spearheaded the investigation into Hope Florida, told Axios he doesn\u2019t \u201csee a reason\u201d to believe Guard is corrupt, but lamented that Guard \u201craised red flags but didn\u2019t push further.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI assume it was a go-along-get-along situation,\u201d Andrade said, according to Axios.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the paused confirmation highlights yet another consequence of the feud between DeSantis and his allies and the Trump world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott has long taken issue with DeSantis. Scott was the one who refused to submit the \u201cblue slip\u201d necessary for any nomination to begin confirmation proceedings. Scott raised concerns in May about Guard\u2019s involvement in the Hope Florida scandal, according to the Pensacola News Journal.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further evidencing rifts between team Trump and team DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody \u2014 Guard\u2019s former boss as former Florida Attorney General \u2014 appears to have retaliated by withholding a blue slip for Jack Heekin\u2019s confirmation as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Axios reported. Heekin is Scott\u2019s former general counsel. However, Moody was ultimately rebuffed when the White House pushed back, and Heekin has since been sworn in<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A grand jury was convened last week<\/a> in Tallahassee to hear testimony related to the Hope Florida scandal, which could issue criminal indictments.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White House is hitting pause on Florida Deputy Attorney General John Guard\u2019s judicial confirmation for the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4065,3853,4066,28,30,29,1384,4455,12314,12315,3856],"class_list":{"0":"post-13987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-alex-andrade","9":"tag-ashley-moody","10":"tag-casey-desantis","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-hope-florida","15":"tag-hope-florida-foundation","16":"tag-jack-heekin","17":"tag-john-guard","18":"tag-rick-scott"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}