Former Republican state legislator Joe Harding of Ocala, known for spearheading Florida’s contentious law restricting discussions of gender and sexuality in public schools, has been sentenced to four months in prison for defrauding the government of $150,000 in pandemic aid. This sentencing was carried out by Judge Allen Winsor in U.S. District Court in Gainesville, with emotional reactions from Harding’s family and friends. Despite attempts to frame his prosecution as political persecution, Harding chose to take responsibility for his actions and repaid the $150,000.
Upon his release from prison, Harding will have to serve two years of supervised release and pay a $300 fine, surrendering himself into custody by January 29. Harding resigned from office in December following his indictment on multiple counts, potentially leading to a 70-year prison sentence. However, he eventually pleaded guilty to one count of each charge as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, reducing the maximum prison sentence to 35 years.
Harding, who served a single two-year term in the Florida House from 2020-2022, gained notoriety for sponsoring the Parental Rights in Education Act, colloquially known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill,’ which prohibited discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools from kindergarten through third grade, later extending to fourth through 12th grades.
Court records revealed that Harding defrauded the federal government by submitting loan applications for two inactive companies through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. He used part of the funds to pay his credit card balance and transferred some to his brother-in-law’s oil company. The brother-in-law, Patrick Walsh, was sentenced to prison for defrauding the government of $7.8 million in COVID-19 loans, some of which was used to purchase an island in the Gulf of Mexico. During the sentencing, it was noted that Walsh had advised Harding to file the fraudulent applications, emphasizing the role of family connections in this case.
, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and those fleeing to Chad between late April and late June 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The assailants appear to have targeted people because of their Massalit ethnicity and, in some cases, because they were known activists.){kind=link}