From The Gainesville Sun:
Former Republican state lawmaker Joe Harding of Ocala, the architect of Florida’s controversial law limiting discussions of gender and sexuality in public schools, was sentenced to four months in prison on charges of defrauding the government of $150,000 in pandemic aid.
Judge Allen Winsor sentenced Harding in U.S. District Court in Gainesville on Thursday. Harding’s family and friends wept throughout the proceedings. One spectator wept audibly after his sentence was read.
The post-sentencing weeper should have been crying with joy because Harding got off so light. The original charges carried a penalty of up to 70 years in jail, and when Harding reached a plea deal, he only managed to cut that risk in half, according to The Sun.
Harding’s brother, Pastor Daniel Harding, told the judge that his brother was a committed family man and pious Christian who taught kids softball instead of advancing his business interests.
“I ask for mercy,” he said.
And mercy Joe Harding received from Trump-appointed Judge Winsor! Got to get that man back to teaching Sunday School, I guess.
One Tallahassee consultant testified (as a LOW character witness, apparently) that Harding quit the statehouse and paid back the funds he stole instead of fighting the charges and framing it as a political prosecution as he was advised. THAT is what counts as virtue these days in the FL GOP.
Harding was allegedly inspired to defraud taxpayers of $150K by a corrupt brother-in-law who was later busted for stealing nearly $8 million. The BIL got 5 years in the slammer.
Winsor sympathetically referenced the BIL’s malign influence on Harding during the sentencing, noting that Harding probably wouldn’t have stole taxpayer money that was meant to help struggling businesses if Harding “had a different brother-in-law.” Well, even if Harding was too dumb to think of the crime independently, that’s hardly a factor in his favor.
I think our criminal justice system is far too punitive most of the time, so maybe I shouldn’t be annoyed by the four month sentence. But knowing how hard the law comes down on ordinary people, it pisses me off when these douchebag Repubs get off so lightly.
Maybe sentencing guidelines should be developed based on the punishment god-bothering white male Repubs get from Trump-appointed judges? That could be one positive thing to come out of Trump flooding the judiciary with far-right hacks.
Open thread.
WaterGirl
Does he get to keep the $150k he stole? Is there a financial penalty?
4 months is a ridiculously short sentence.
Who needs to do cardio to get their heart rate up? All you have to do instead is read news like this!
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Especially when they’re the ones foisting all these punitive laws on us.
Also, not quite foist.
twbrandt
@WaterGirl: According to one of the witnesses he paid the money back. But even if you return the money you stole, you still committed a crime.
E.
OMG I can’t even. My tiny little bakery never got the $9,800 PPP loan we requested because I used actual documentation and my rinky-dink rural bank was slow on the uptake and the result was we were like 1,980,000 in line according to the website, and the money was gone before we got to the front of the queue. It was gone because of people like this shithead. Then Covid killed my business. (We wouldn’t have made it with the loan either, but still.)
Shalimar
Thank God he didn’t get drunk and rob a Tom Thumb of $137.84, or he would have gotten 10 years.
edit: As the judge said, a different brother-in-law means he wouldn’t have committed that crime. But he seems easily led, so he could have committed plenty of other crimes.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: He paid the $150K back (he tried to steal more but only received $150K) and besides the four months, he has to pay a $300 fine. The amount of the fine is just goddamn ridiculous, IMO.
Betty Cracker
@E.: That sucks — I’m sorry about what happened to your business. I don’t know how the funds were distributed, but the high number of GOP reps who received funding (as pointed out by the Biden admin when said Repubs were complaining about student loan forgiveness) makes me suspect the wealthy and connected were first in line as usual.
Jerry
So pious that he ignored the Thou Shalt Not Steal commandment because he could just pray away the sin from Jesus.
WaterGirl
@twbrandt: Surely you’re aware that I know that, right? I was just looking for confirmation that this guy didn’t get to keep the loot!
WaterGirl
@E.: I’m so sorry. That has to be enraging.
NotMax
House just gaveled into session, McCarthy nominates Jordan, insults Democrats.
Gag me with a spoon.
hells littlest angel
Ell oh fucking ell. See you in the exercise yard. (I’ll be on the other side of the fence.)
WaterGirl
@Shalimar: Yep.
Good to know that now all the poor kids who grow up in rough neighborhoods will get off easy for any small crimes they commit. I mean, after all, it’s not their fault that their brother and most of the others in the neighborhood are gang members, am I right?
This sentence reminds me of that nice sports-playing lad who raped the girl in the bushes some years ago, and he got off with basically no punishment because he was a good boy who played sports.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Oh my god a $300 fine. Get these cretins off the bench.
(Where is the rapture when you need it?)
Chris
@Jerry:
“Not perfect, just forgiven.”
Anoniminous
@WaterGirl:
He’s white. It’s Florida.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: Interesting that McCarthy did the nominating. Was reading yesterday that the Jordan people were insisting that Scalise do it because it’s thought most of the hold-outs think Jordan did Scalise dirty.
Anoniminous
The Kabuki Theater known as “A Republican Controlled House” is now showing Elect Jordan Speaker – Rise of the Morons.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I need to correct something I said to you the other day about an Israeli poll that I misread. The poll showed that 80% of Israelis said that PM Netanyahu needed to take public responsibility for Israel’s deficient response to the October 7 attack, not that he should resign. Israel’s Mossad head and IDF Chief of Staff have owned up to their responsibility as have several of Netanyahu’s ministers, but he has not.
The poll did not ask if Netanyahu should resign, but it did ask what party people would vote for in a new election. Answers showed that Netanyahu’s 4-party coalition would drop from 64 MKs to 46 (out of 120). Benny Gantz’s National Unity party would jump from 11MKs to 40.
Kay
He made restitution on the 150k. It wasn’t a PPP loan either- it was an economic disaster loan thru the SBA. I wonder why he went that route. Maybe Floridians are familiar with economic disaster loans because of the hurricanes? Might be time to do a general audit of those.
OzarkHillbilly
@Chris:
Not by me MFers.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Thanks for updating that!
Ken
I do compliment the writers for not going with the obvious — when I saw the title, I was sure the crime would involve sex, possibly gay, possibly underage, possibly both.
Chris
@OzarkHillbilly:
Jesus loves you, everyone else thinks you’re an asshole, as the saying goes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Chris: Everyone else is right, I am an asshole. Not sure what is wrong with that Jesus guy.
twbrandt
@WaterGirl: sorry, I wasn’t clear on what you were asking.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
makes me suspect the wealthy and connected were first in line as usual.
How do you think many of the wealthy got that way? By hard work and due diligence? (hard work/due diligence – 4 words that do not mean the same to many as Webster defines them)
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly
There is a difference, do you work at it or does it come naturally?
Naturally is OK, it’s who you are.
Working at it means it’s who you think you should be and that you have to perfect the art of it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ruckus: I’m too lazy to work at it.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: May I just say that they think that because Jordan DID do Scalise dirty!
cmorenc
Can’t help bringing to mind the courtroom scene in “Mississippi Burning” where the judge, in sentencing three KKK thugs convicted of arson for burning down a black family’s house – sentenced them to probation because “they were provoked”.
glory b
I think a lot of people don’t realize how light Federal sentencing can be compared to state sentencing. Only at times like this, where there are lots of federal sentences in the news (thanks to the 1/6 sentences) does the difference demand attention.
catclub
Unlike the woman in Tennessee who stole around $35k and also got 3 years – but probably had no lawyer.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
So we are going with naturally…..
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
Not my experience with PPP loans. The Trump Admin was a mess in issuing necessary guidance for banks to issue loans. These were revised several times. Sometimes hard to stay on top of things regarding loan applications.
Glad people who cheated are getting busted.
Bill Arnold
@Jerry:
Visiting Kenya (safari, very small tour) around 2007-ish, we passed a commotion in town with a dead adult male body at the side of the road with a bunch of large stones around.
Was a thief, the guide/driver quietly said to me; the local police are corrupt and let the thieves go for a cut of the action.
This was an area that was nearly entirely Christian (don’t know the variety).
wjca
You left out “He’s a Republican legislator.” Just being white might well not be enough.
Paul in KY
@Bill Arnold: Probably very fundamentalist Christianity. Not Catholic.