Former Republican Florida state Rep. Joseph Harding, who subsidized the “Don’t Say Gay” invoice, pleaded to blame Tuesday to cord fraud, cash laundering, and making false statements in reference to Covid aid fraud, in keeping with a Department of Justice press liberate.
Harding illegally acquired greater than $150,000 in pandemic loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA) by way of mendacity on an Economic Injury Disaster Loan for one in every of his dormant trade entities, in line with the dept. Prosecutors said that the previous Florida lawmaker carried out 3 financial transactions, each and every involving greater than $10,000 in fraudulently acquired price range: a switch to his joint checking account, a fee to his credit card, and a switch right into a checking account of a third-party trade entity.
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The Republican resigned from the Florida House in December, an afternoon after his indictment was once introduced by way of federal prosecutors. A listening to is scheduled for July 25. He faces as much as 35 years in jail.
Harding was once first elected to the Florida House in 2020, and was once some of the leader architects at the back of the Parental Rights in Education Act, which bars educators from discussing gender identification or sexual orientation in study rooms up till 0.33 grade. The regulation, which was once branded the “Don’t Say Gay” invoice and signed into legislation remaining yr by way of Governor Ron DeSantis, led to a countrywide uproar. The Trevor Project condemned the invoice announcing the legislation erases “LGBTQ identity, history, and culture — as well as LGBTQ students themselves.”
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