Mississippi’s former welfare director and his former professional wrestler buddy sometimes discussed how their ideas – funded with millions of federal public safety-net funds – might help the lives of others.
But they mostly talked about their own prosperity, exhibits read in federal court Monday demonstrated.
“Man you get me excited with all those money bags,” former Mississippi Human Services Department Director John Davis once texted former WWE star Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr.
DiBiase is standing trial for his alleged role in a broader welfare fraud scandal that auditors found resulted in the loss of roughly $100 million in federal funds meant to assist the needy from 2016 to 2020. And Davis, who pleaded guilty in 2022 and is cooperating with the prosecution as he awaits sentencing, finished his second day testifying against the wrestler Monday.
The trial deals specifically with the charges against DiBiase – 13 counts ranging from conspiracy, wire fraud, theft and money laundering. The trial could last weeks. But five days in, testimony and exhibits have at times touched on the broader network of people at play.
“I have seen first hand with my own eyes what a letter with the state seal & endorsement from the Governor himself can do,” DiBiase texted Davis, according to a government exhibit displayed in court. “What’s crazy is when you put that letter in a quazi (sic) educated quazi (sic) celebrity’s hands who genuinely and sincerely wants to change the world. The doors of the decision makers and gold brick shares fly open off the hinges. Like a Baptist church when their 60min Jesus fix is up and they got football and chicken waiting at home.”
Several inquiries begged to be explored, such as when the prosecutor asked Davis to identify the eight different agency employees or attorney general’s office lawyers who reviewed and authorized one of the agreements used as a vehicle to pay DiBiase.
Or when Davis explained that a federal director from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services traveled to Mississippi “all the time because he liked what we were doing.”
Davis is set to return to the witness stand for cross-examination by the defense Tuesday.
MORE TRIAL COVERAGE:DAY 4: Feds ask disgraced former welfare director ‘million-dollar question’: Why? Loneliness and loveDAY 3: Wrestler’s multimillion dollar ‘self-help curriculum’ helped crack open a wider welfare scandalDAY 2: Opening statements in welfare scandal trial paint former director as villain who doled out millions over infatuationDAY 1: 83 witnesses could enter the ring in Mississippi welfare scandal trialTRIAL PREVIEW: Ex-WWE wrestler faces feds in first – and potentially only – criminal trial in Mississippi welfare scandal
The first day of Davis testimony lingered on the bizarre and sentimental relationship between the two men, who bonded quickly and intensely over their shared religiosity and elaborate plans for their futures.
The second day, the prosecution kept pummeling the jury with text messages that suggested Davis and DiBiase aimed to use their access to the nation’s welfare delivery system to generate lifelong security for themselves and their families.
While DiBiase was receiving large payments totaling more than $3 million from the state’s welfare and food assistance programs, the two men were discussing buying property and starting a compound together in order to “enjoy life the way it’s meant to be,” one text read.
Some seemed like passive fantasies, while others were more specific: Should Davis buy the orange Kubota or the green John Deere tractor? Had DiBiase seen this property for sale on Magnolia Drive? Davis said he’d give up the main house for a cottage in the lower 40.
Meanwhile, in one of the most poverty-stricken states in the nation, Davis’ department was denying up to 98% of people applying for cash assistance from the same pot of funds they were using. Out of the roughly $86.5 million Mississippi receives annually from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, it doles out about $4 million to families in need.
Davis testified Monday that DiBiase was aware of the source of the funds he received.
“Fear is INEVITABLE,” reads screenshot from a power point former Mississippi Department of Human Services Director John Davis and wrestler Ted DiBiase Jr. used during their leadership training program called Law of 16.Davis had worked for the department, starting out as a county-level eligibility worker assisting welfare applicants, for over two decades by the time DiBiase came along. When they met, Davis was also working as an adjunct professor and DiBiase was vice president of business development for a Christian insurance company called One Life America.
Both of their roles dealt with leadership development, Davis said. They texted about their desire to go into business together, combine the training concepts they’d devised and shop the product to businesses and other states as consultants. They pumped each other up.
“Your vision is so crystal clear and synergistic with mine that it’s got to be illegal,” DiBiase texted Davis.
When asked what DiBiase was doing alongside Davis on a da- to-day basis, Davis described him as “being a shadow and a person who could take notes and keep things straight.”
“Taking meetings, going to things with the governor, the Governor’s Mansion, governor’s office,” Davis said. “… Anything I went to, he went to.”
While he was paid sporadically, DiBiase received an average of about $30,000 per week.
Some employees at MDHS were earning annual salaries of $18,000, Davis testified Monday, about $350 a week.
Davis said his boss, then-Gov. Phil Bryant, had been receiving complaints about those workers delivering poor customer service, and that’s why Davis hired DiBiase to deliver talks to encourage them. Bryant, a Republican, was in his second and final term when he nominated Davis to lead MDHS in January 2016, and Davis was later confirmed by the state Senate. Davis resigned in July 2019.
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