The White House paused the judicial nomination of former Florida Deputy Attorney General John Guard due to his involvement with a charity linked to Gov. Ron DeSantis that’s under criminal investigation, sources tell Axios.
Why it matters: The White House wants to fill the open judicial seat in the Middle District of Florida, but the sources say the administration doesn’t want the headache now that Guard has been subpoenaed.
- “The White House doesn’t have any reason to really believe that John broke the law, but it doesn’t want a nasty confirmation fight about this until it all gets cleared up,” said a source with direct knowledge of the confirmation.
- Guard declined to comment.
Zoom in: The controversy stems from the diversion of $10 million in secret settlement money from a Medicaid provider that helped fund a DeSantis-controlled political committee in 2024 to kill a marijuana-legalization initiative.
- Guard signed the settlement but first privately raised concerns about it, according to emails obtained by The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Florida Capitol Bureau.
- Florida House Republicans and independent observers allege that the arrangement amounted to an illegal siphoning of Medicaid funds.
- Last week, the state attorney in Tallahassee convened a grand jury to investigate. DeSantis has denied wrongdoing.
What they’re saying: Guard’s nomination was abruptly halted when the investigation was announced and Guard was subpoenaed this month, the sources said.
- A source familiar with the situation said Guard’s nomination will be “indefinitely” paused.
Zoom out: The investigation exposed a rift between Florida Sen. Rick Scott and DeSantis, his predecessor, with whom he has had a strained relationship for years.
- DeSantis has also had a poor relationship with top Trump advisers who supported the president and worked on his campaign when the governor unsuccessfully ran against him last year.
Friction point: At the White House’s direction, the sources say, Scott has refused to submit what’s called a “blue slip” for Guard’s nomination, which would have triggered a confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- “There [are] some questions now about his [Guard’s] involvement in Hope Florida,” Scott said in May. “I think we need to get to the bottom of that.”
- That angered Scott’s fellow Republican senator from Florida, Ashley Moody, who wants Guard to become a judge because he worked for her in 2024 when she was Florida attorney general.
- So Moody initially retaliated by not returning a blue slip for Jack Heekin, Scott’s former general counsel, who was nominated to become U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, the sources said.
Moody relented after the White House informed her office that it wanted Heekin to go forward while it pumped the brakes on Guard. Heekin was confirmed and sworn in in June.
Between the lines: Trump has no real reservations about Hope Florida (or DeSantis any more), having endorsed the governor’s former chief of staff, James Uthmeier, for Florida attorney general.
- Uthmeier chaired the political committee Keep Florida Clean, which received the $10 million at issue. Uthmeier has said the arrangement broke no laws.
- In addition to the diverted settlement money, DeSantis diverted as much as $40 million in taxpayer money to fight the 2024 citizens’ initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana and expand abortion rights, according to an analysis by the investigative publication Seeking Rents.
- Both measures failed to reach the 60% threshold required in Florida to pass constitutional amendments, though a majority of voters favored each of them.
By the numbers: Arousing suspicions about the diversion of the settlement money was how the Medicaid company, Centene, had first tried to offer it to Florida in 2021. But the DeSantis administration only showed strong interest in it at the height of the 2024 campaign season.
The DeSantis administration proposed diverting the settlement money to Hope Florida in a three-step process:
- It required Centene to send $10 million directly to Hope Florida.
- Hope Florida divided the $10 million in half and sent equal portions to two political groups, Secure Florida’s Future and Save Our Society From Drugs.
- Those two committees then gave a total of $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean.
What’s next: Insiders say Guard will still probably get confirmed if the investigation wraps up quickly.
- “Guard is still qualified and the White House wants to fill this spot,” one of the sources said.
- Florida state Rep. Alex Andrade (R), who investigated Hope Florida last year in the state Legislature, said the email correspondence between Guard and other public officials shows “John raised red flags but didn’t push further. I assume it was a go-along-get along situation.”
- “Do I think he’s corrupt? I don’t see a reason for that. But I don’t know what he knew and when. I would defer to him about that,” Andrade said. “I don’t think he knew the money would be used for the campaign.”
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