{"id":199682,"date":"2026-03-20T21:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199682\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:18:07","slug":"florida-gubernatorial-candidate-james-fishbacks-own-lawyers-dump-him-over-unpaid-150k-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199682\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback’s own lawyers dump him over unpaid $150k bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback<\/a> has been dumped by his own lawyers, who accused him of racking up more than $150,000 in unpaid bills from his long-running legal spat with hedge fund titan David Einhorn, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Court filings show the 31-year-old Republican \u2014 who has spouted conspiracy theories about Jewish people on the campaign trail \u2014 has failed to cough up the cash for nearly four months after he was sued by his former employer, Einhorn\u2019s Greenlight Capital.<\/p>\n

Fishback is set to face off against<\/a> President Trump-backed Rep. Byron Donalds in the GOP primary this August to succeed outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n

Fishback, a former hedge funder, is running to be the GOP\u2019s candidate to succeed term-limited Governor Ron DeSantis. x\/j_fishback<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Abrams Fensterman LLP told a Manhattan federal judge on March 12 that they wanted to quit representing Fishback because the candidate had racked up $150,000 in unpaid fees. \u201cMost of this balance has been outstanding for more than 120 days,\u201d Fishback\u2019s lawyer Justin T. Kelton wrote.<\/p>\n

Kelton added that Fishback \u201chas informed the Firm that (i) he is unable to pay the outstanding and overdue balance, and (ii) he will not be able to pay fees that may be incurred for any future work that may be required going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for comment Friday, Fishback told The Post: \u201cI owe my Mom $20.67 for Chipotle last night. She is the only one I\u2019ll be paying back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenlight Capital sued Fishback for allegedly failing to repay two promissory notes worth $300,000 the firm extended to him during his tenure there from 2021 to 2023. Wall Street firms <\/a>sometimes lend cash to staff as a perk, which can be used to help buy a house, cover moving costs, or smooth out taxes on a big bonus.<\/p>\n

A Manhattan federal judge granted Greenlight full summary judgment in March 2025, ordering Fishback to pay about $229,000 plus interest.<\/p>\n

David Einhorn\u2019s Greenlight Capital sued Fishback over unpaid loans and accused him of using confidential information to start his own fund, Azoria Partners. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The latest legal developments come just a week after a separate arbitration case Fishback filed against Greenlight was tossed out completely because he failed to show up.<\/p>\n

\u201cFishback is clearly a con arist,\u201d said US Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican. \u201cRight now, he is grifting off those he has suckered into supporting his campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fishback has built up a niche following on social media with a string of antisemitic remarks and calling Donalds, who is black, a \u201cDEI candidate.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

He claimed that \u201cAmericans shouldn\u2019t die for Israel\u201d after the start of the Iran war. At a rally at the University of Central Florida in early February, he branded the college\u2019s cafeteria food as \u201cgoyslop,\u201d alluding to an alt-right conspiracy theory<\/a> that unhealthy food is a Jewish plot against non-Jews.<\/p>\n

Fishback got attention last year by falsely telling media outlets he was working closely on cost-cutting with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n

He previously told The Post that he came up with the idea to provide DOGE-dividend checks to ordinary Americans as a result of savings made by the now-defunct department.<\/p>\n

Rep Randy Fine blasted Fishback as \u201ca con artist\u201d and said he would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d as if he pulled off an unlikely upset to become Governor of the Sunshine State. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Alex Bruesewitz, a media advisor to President Trump, blasted Fishback last November as a \u201cpathological liar,\u201d calling his claims to be involved with the project \u201ca complete fabrication.\u201d Former DOGE spokeswoman Katie Miller has also denied that he had any involvement.<\/p>\n

Greenlight Capital sued Fishback in 2024, alleging that he falsely claimed to be the firm\u2019s \u201cHead of Macro\u201d and misstated his investment performance of reaping $100 million in profits to attract investors to his new venture, Azoria Partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their lawsuit also alleged Fishback was a poor performer, consistently failed to meet expectations, and was set to be fired for low productivity before resigning.<\/p>\n

Fishback is set to face off against President Trump-backed Rep. Byron Donalds in the GOP primary this August to succeed outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis. AP<\/p>\n

The firm also accused the junior money man of violating his employment agreement by sharing confidential portfolio data to help start Azoria.<\/p>\n

But that venture saw its two flagship exchange-traded funds liquidated by independent trustees in December 2025 amid limited investor interest and ongoing litigation involving the firm\u2019s principal.<\/p>\n

Fishback has also come under scrutiny for a relationship with a 17-year-old high school student. In 2022, the Broward County School District in Florida cut its ties with a debate league Fishback founded after learning of his relationship with the young student, who participated in the program.<\/p>\n

Former DOGE spokeswoman Katie Miller has also denied that he had any involvement with the cost-cutting project led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fishback has said the relationship began after she turned 18. The pair later lived together and became engaged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, the woman \u2014 who had also worked for the league \u2014 sought a protective injunction, alleging stalking and domestic violence. Fishback defeated the petition in court, denied the allegations, and never faced criminal charges.<\/p>\n

Congressman Donalds has emerged as the clear frontrunner in the GOP election, scheduled for August, and is heavily buoyed by his name recognition and Trump\u2019s endorsement.<\/p>\n

Still, many voters are undecided. Donalds has backing from 44% of likely GOP primary voters compared to Fishback\u2019s 5% \u2014 leaving 45% undecided, according to a recent poll from The American Promise.<\/p>\n

A survey from the University of North Florida has Fishback \u2014 \u00a0who has suggested slapping a \u201csin tax\u201d on Florida\u2019s Only Fans creators \u2014 ahead of Donalds among GOP voters aged 18 to 34 by 32% to Donalds\u2019 8%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has been dumped by his own lawyers, who accused him of racking up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[41480,558,92321,28,30,29,4137,99,412],"class_list":["post-199682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-antisemitism","tag-business","tag-david-einhorn","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-lawsuits","tag-politics","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199682","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=199682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}