{"id":365109,"date":"2026-08-07T08:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T08:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365109\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T08:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T08:14:11","slug":"fishback-florida-gov-candidate-byron-donalds-under-federal-sex-trafficking-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365109\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishback: Florida gov. candidate Byron Donalds under federal sex-trafficking probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Ahead of the primaries later this month, Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has launched accusations that competitor Byron Donalds is under federal investigation for sex trafficking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Fishback made the announcement on Thursday via social media, touching on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2026\/07\/22\/florida-rep-cory-mills-faces-doj-criminal-investigation-sources-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2026\/07\/22\/florida-rep-cory-mills-faces-doj-criminal-investigation-sources-say\/\">a similar alleged investigation involving U.S. Rep. Cory Mills<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">According to Fishback \u2014 who referenced an anonymous \u201cgovernment whistleblower\u201d \u2014 the investigation surrounding Mills expanded to include Donalds.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">On July 21st, 2026, NBC News reported that Republican Florida Congressman Cory Mills was under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>Like virtually every federal investigation, this one began with a single suspect before expanding to include others.<\/p>\n<p>A government\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JQNVFtOkmT\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/JQNVFtOkmT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 James Fishback (@j_fishback) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/j_fishback\/status\/2085438648074322189?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 6, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cFederal prosecutors are looking at two dates in question: May 17th, 2024, and November 19th, 2024,\u201d his post reads. \u201cDates when Congressmen Mills and Donalds are said to have traveled to the MGM National Harbor \u2014 a luxury hotel resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where they solicited, procured, and paid women for explicit sexual acts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">[RELATED: US Rep. Cory Mills faces DOJ criminal investigation, sources say]<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Fishback said his legal team managed to \u201cindependently verify this investigation,\u201d claiming that a third party revealed messages from Rep. Mills confirming that he and Donalds were at the MGM Harbor on both of those dates.<\/p>\n<p>Supposed text messages between U.S. Rep. Cory Mills and a third party, shared by Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback (James Fishback)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Per Fishback\u2019s post, a federal prosecutor asked the DOJ whether Donalds was under investigation, though the agency reportedly refused to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cThey refused to do so despite clearing Florida Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of any criminal conduct in a letter just two weeks ago,\u201d the post continues.<\/p>\n<p>A copy of the letter shared by Fishback (James Fishback)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Fishback has had a contentious relationship with Donalds as the primary season has progressed, with both vying for the Republican candidacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">News 6 has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Donalds campaign for more details about these accusations, and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Ahead of the primaries later this month, Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has launched accusations&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[445,8184,2715,28,30,29,28912,99],"class_list":["post-365109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-byron-donalds","tag-election-2026","tag-elections","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-fishback","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365109","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=365109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}