James Fishback has spent a significant amount of time in courtrooms during his run for Governor, but now he says, without proof, that likely Republican nominee Byron Donalds is the one who merits legal scrutiny.
Donalds’ camp says the allegations are “completely false.”
“We will not be distracted by this baseless and defamatory sideshow, and neither should you,” said spokesman Gates McGavick.
And a law enforcement source called Florida Politics and said the allegations against Mills were “absolutely false.”
Fishback said a “government whistleblower” presented evidence, which he said his campaign “has confirmed,” that a alleged criminal investigation of U.S. Rep. Cory Mills also included Donalds. (Mills denies knowledge of such an investigation).
Fishback alleges Donalds participated in “federal sex trafficking” with Mills twice in 2024 at the MGM National Harbor Hotel in Maryland. He said Mills and Donalds “paid women for sexual acts” and that both men faced felony charges that could lead to five years in prison.
The charges are serious, but given the source and the timing less than two weeks before the GOP Primary, it is hard to take them seriously without corroboration.
Fishback said the Justice Department refused to comment on whether it was investigating Donalds, and said Donalds should “speak directly to the voters” about the unsubstantiated claim.
In making the accusation that Donalds is being investigated, the Fishback campaign’s closing argument is obscuring the embattled GOP firebrand’s own ethical and moral lapses with attacks on the Donald Trump-endorsed front-runner.
Fishback owes his former hedge fund employer, Greenlight Capital, more than $1.3 million. A federal Magistrate Judge in January ordered Fishback to turn over Azoria stock certificates and dozens of personal luxury purchases to the U.S. Marshals Service to satisfy a separate $229,000 judgment, which Fishback has said he won’t pay.
He also lost an arbitration bid against Greenlight this past Spring after failing to participate in the case. And his former law firm, Abrams Fensterman, moved to withdraw from representing him over more than $150,000 in unpaid bills.
While Fishback survived a legal challenge to his claim of Florida residency last month, he admitted to having voted in D.C. in 2020 and held a homestead exemption at that point. Individuals must demonstrate residency before voting in the nation’s capital.
While he hasn’t been charged, consequences could abound.
The voting violation carries penalties of up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines, while the homestead infraction is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, plus repayment with interest and tax penalties.
Fishback’s legal troubles don’t end there. A former debate champion who says Fishback’s nonprofit, Incubate Debate, still owes her $8,000 in promised scholarship money filed a small-claims suit in Broward County last week.
Fishback has also used racist language toward Donalds. He called him a “slave” to his donors and corporate interests, a “DEI Republican” and “By’rone.” Following the residency hearing, Fishback again invoked Donalds’ race while announcing a proposal, named for Donalds, to eliminate Florida’s three-day waiting period on firearm purchases, which he named the “B.Y.R.O.N. Act” — short for “Bolster Your Right to Own Now.”
Fishback has also appeared on a podcast alongside self-described admirers of Adolf Hitler and has rubbed elbows with other members of the so-called “manosphere” who traffic in misogynistic, antisemitic and racist rhetoric.
While not illegal, his campaign finance has raised concerns, with a few donors backing a quixotic campaign that spends heavily on travel and lodging and staged what critics from rival campaigns call a “shotgun wedding” for optics.
Fishback didn’t discuss his own foibles Thursday, as he did not take questions from media.
There is precedent for this kind of stunt.
Former President Lyndon B. Johnson, a veteran of tough campaigns throughout his political life, once floated a story that an opponent engaged in carnal relations with a pig. When his Campaign Manager protested, Johnson said the goal was to “make him deny it.”
