Things got heated before the hearing on James Fishback's electoral eligibility even began.
"I'll get to the bottom of everything that happened here,” Fishback told John Cardillo, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins’ campaign adviser.
Collins, who didn’t attend the Tuesday hearing in Tallahassee, is challenging his opponent Fishback’s candidacy in the GOP primary race for governor.
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“Who financed this?” Fishback continued. “Enjoy cell block one. ‘James will be an authoritarian.' Yes, I will, and I'm proud of it. Yes, a lot of people are going to prison.”
There's no evidence the Collins team broke the law through its challenge. But there is Florida constitutional law putting a seven-year residency requirement on governors.
Collins says Fishback doesn't meet that requirement. And he accuses Fishback of lying on his candidate's oath.
“Notarized official documents here all point to a residency in Washington, D.C., for a period of time earlier on the window but still within that seven-year window, that the constitution requires him to be a resident of Florida,” said Nick Boerke, one of Collins' attorneys.
The cited examples include records showing Fishback registered to vote and voted in Washington in 2020. And, on Tuesday, Collins' team talked a lot about how Fishback listed his condo there as his primary residence on mortgage paperwork in 2021.
Fishback is an investor and controversial figure, with many critics accusing him of being racist and antisemitic, which he denies.
He didn't dispute the claims about his D.C. voting record or mortgage paperwork. He said he "inadvertently" registered in D.C. after walking into a polling place to vote for Trump in 2020.
He said he was stuck there at the time because of the COVID-19 pandemic but insists Florida was home.
He said that in 2021 he signed mortgage papers there in a rush and didn't mean to list that home as his primary residence.
He acknowledged it could come with legal consequences in D.C., since he maintains his main residence was in Florida.
"If I am criminally prosecuted for telling the truth today, I will face that fate soon enough,” he said from the stand.
Yet, after the hearing, Fishback said he didn't anticipate such consequences.
“If somebody wants to charge me for filling out the wrong paperwork seven years ago, they're more than welcome to,” he told WUSF.
He also said he expected to win the case. And he got into it again with Collins' adviser, getting into a shouting match in the hallway outside the courtroom.
Judge David Frank said he plans to rule on the case by 5 p.m. Monday.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
