A former adviser to President Donald Trump took his first stab Monday at questioning Mississippi’s former welfare director, the federal government’s star witness in an ongoing trial of a former pro wrestler accused of theft.
Eric Herschmann, the Austin-based ex-Trump adviser who recently took over as lead attorney for defendant Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr., didn’t grill John Davis so much as paint the disgraced ex-welfare director as a well-meaning bureaucrat surrounded by enablers.
Then-Gov. Phil Bryant nominated Davis to lead the Mississippi Department of Human Services in 2016 and the agency racked up $100 million in questioned purchases in a 2019 audit. Davis pleaded guilty to state and federal conspiracy charges in 2022 and he awaits sentencing as he cooperates with prosecutors in DiBiase’s case.
Herschmann asked Davis about requests he received from Gov. Bryant’s wife, Deborah Bryant, such as for help building a palliative care facility – a project that planners initially considered funding with welfare dollars and naming after the first lady but was later taken on by University of Mississippi Medical Center and named after a former state lawmaker. The lawyer evoked scenes of lawmakers calling on Davis to discuss ways to improve their communities.
“Sometimes you would listen to what they said?” Herschmann asked, “Because you thought it was the right thing to do?”
Yes, Davis responded, and Herschmann continued: “You always tried to do the right thing?”
“I don’t want to sit here and act like I’m an innocent person,” Davis said. “I tried to do my very best.”
Herschmann asked if Davis ever met alone with people who sought his agency’s support, and Davis said he always had attorneys in tow. “Because that way you have a witness,” Herschmann added.
In the government’s opening statements in the DiBiase trial last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Meynardie called Davis the “big villain in this case.” Davis was instrumental in pushing $3 million in federal funds from his agency to DiBiase through what prosecutors call “sham contracts,” while DiBiase argues he was a lawful contractor.
DiBiase, a WWE wrestler-turned-motivational-speaker, is facing 13 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, theft of federal funds and money laundering in a broader alleged scheme to raid the state’s federal public assistance agency.
Meynardie said DiBiase showered affection on Davis, and in turn, Davis showered him with taxpayer money, most of which flowed through agreements with two nonprofits selected to privatize the state’s welfare delivery system. The prosecutor also said one of the nonprofit directors, Christie Webb, will testify that she only inked the deals with DiBiase under duress, and that when she finally pushed back, she was punished.
Webb hasn’t testified yet, but Davis rejected this telling on the stand Monday. Funding cuts to Webb’s organization were due to a government shutdown and other funding shortfalls, Davis said, and he never intended to retaliate against her. Davis also said Webb had secretly recorded him.
When the jig was up in June of 2019, Davis said the first call he got was from Republican Gov. Bryant, who summoned Davis to his office. Davis testified Monday that the governor told him the people of Mississippi would be disappointed, because they’d thought they’d had a “great Christian guy leading DHS.”
After that meeting, auditors began digging into Davis’ dealings, starting with his work with a couple of wrestlers – DiBiase and his younger brother Brett DiBiase, who pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge in 2023.
But Davis testified that he never received a kickback. Sure, the nonprofit directors once gave him a $500 gift card for Christmas, but “you weren’t soliciting” Herschmann asked, and Davis said no.
The older DiBiase brother’s trial, which began Jan. 6, had a five-week delay after the lead defense attorney, Scott Gilbert, experienced a health issue on Jan. 14 while cross examining Davis. DiBiase’s team asked for a mistrial, and U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves rejected the request.
Herschmann, who joined DiBiase’s case shortly before trial began, is familiar with the facts of the larger welfare scandal because he represents retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre in the welfare department’s ongoing civil lawsuit over the alleged misspending.
DiBiase primarily retained Herschmann to examine one witness, former deputy state auditor Stephanie Palmertree, whom the attorney has repeatedly alleged fabricated evidence to the government – which her lawyer denied. After Gilbert’s medical incident, Reeves appointed Herschmann as a court-funded fulltime lawyer for DiBiase.
Gilbert, who is seeking election for a circuit court judge seat in Rankin and Madison counties, was not in court Monday. Herschmann again argued for a mistrial, saying he had scheduling conflicts and that it would be impossible for another attorney to become familiar with the case any time soon. There are, after all, at least 6 million pages of evidence associated with the case.
“This case is pregnant with text messages. There’s text messages everywhere,” Reeves said at one point, referencing a dispute between parties over the formatting differences between documents gathered by each side.
In response to the defense’s mistrial attempt, the prosecution noted how many resources the court had already used to bring the case this far.
“Starting over is a big deal, and it’s going to be very hard to pick another jury,” U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Adrienne Rosen said.
Reeves determined Herschmann and Gilbert’s co-counsel, Sidney Lampton, could adequately represent DiBiase for the remainder of trial beginning Monday.
The prosecution said it hoped to finish with its witnesses by the end of this week, at which point the defense will have its turn. There could be more hiccups before the widely anticipated resolution of the DiBiase case – the only criminal case within the welfare scandal to go to trial so far. Herschmann said he had a planned religious trip to Israel next week, and Reeves is scheduled to be out the second week of March.
Lawyers have said roughly 100 potential witnesses could be called. So far, the prosecution has only reached its fourth witness, Davis. He is expected to return to the stand Tuesday.
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