The audio version of this story is AI generated and is not human reviewed. It may contain errors or inaccuracies. Mississippi’s former welfare director testified Wednesday that a leadership program at the heart of a criminal case against former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase Jr. was done in accord with a federal faith-based initiative during the first Trump presidency. Former Mississippi Department of Human Services director John Davis heads to the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today John Davis, the former Mississippi Department of Human Services director awaiting sentencing for his role in the brazen welfare heist, has repeated this refrain multiple times during the four days he’s held the witness stand so far in the DiBiase trial. In fact, when answering how he first met the wrestler, Davis described attending a 2017 meeting at the Governor’s Mansion, where he said Gov. Phil Bryant discussed new faith-based initiatives on the federal level. Davis said DiBiase’s brother, Brett, was there, and told the governor how his dad’s Christian ministry called Heart of David could be involved. Their dad is famed professional wrestling heel Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase, who delivers his testimonial about overcoming temptations during his time with the World Wrestling Federation by recommitting to Jesus. Davis’ explanation provides some context for his communication with the DiBiase brothers, which was laden with references to God and scripture. “You are God sent,” Teddy DiBiase said in 2017 in one of his earliest messages to the welfare director.  Davis frequently told the brothers, “I love you” and “God loves you,” though on Wednesday, Davis testified that he messaged many people in that manner, including the two nonprofit directors that funneled grants to the wrestlers. The DiBiase family secured a total of nearly $6 million in federal grants through Davis’ agency, the majority coming from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Teddy DiBiase is facing 13 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, theft of federal funds and money laundering. Brett DiBiase pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the scheme; the father was not charged criminally; and all three DiBiase men are facing a civil lawsuit brought by the welfare department to recoup the funds.  MORE TRIAL COVERAGE:DAY 6: Wrestler carried out welfare-funded workshops in broad daylight, defense testimony assertsDAY 5: Welfare director texted wrestler who was his high-paid aide about ‘money bags,’ testimony showsDAY 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 TANF funds are meant to alleviate or prevent poverty through a number of possible ways – direct cash assistance to help families care for children in the home; the promotion of job preparation, work and marriage; reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and the formation or maintenance of two-parent families. Auditors questioned tens of millions of dollars worth of purchases under this program from 2016 to 2020.  When prosecutors asked Davis last week about why his agency transferred TANF money to Heart of David, Davis said it was part of the faith-based initiative that “the governor wanted us to do.” The scope of services in one of Heart of David’s subgrant agreements included several items geared toward young people, including trying to “increase the number of adolescents who live a life of servanthood” and “strengthen attitudes and expectations towards community, family and their US citizenship.” The second agreement was more pared down, with Heart of David agreeing to “establish a network of partnerships, services and resources throughout Mississippi communities for faith-based and self activities,” according to a forensic audit. In the first report detailing the misspending, the State Auditor’s 2019 MDHS Management Letter, the authors explain that TANF rules allow states to direct funds to faith-based organizations as subgrants, but they must include restrictions on explicitly religious activities. Auditors found that grant agreements between DHS and Heart of Davis did not feature such restrictions. In October 2017, about four months after DiBiase began working on his first welfare-funded contract to create a leadership development program, he received an invitation to visit the White House from Jay Strack, a motivational speaker and then-member of President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The letter, shown to the court Wednesday, referred to DiBiase as “one of the best and brightest the nation has to offer.” In 2018, Trump signed an executive order establishing the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which stated that the administration wanted faith-based organizations to compete on an equal playing field with others for federal funding. The same year, Trump signed the Family First Prevention Services Act, which Mississippi leaders vowed publicly to adopt and set up committees to carry out. The Act aimed to prevent family separations by allowing states to use child welfare funds on items that a family may need to keep a child safely at home. DiBiase sat on the state advisory council for the state’s Family First Initiative. Churches and faith-based organizations were part of the approach to coordinate prevention efforts across sectors. But the state didn’t submit its plan under the Act to the federal government until years after the scandal led to the effective dismantling of the initiative.  As part of DiBiase’s work with the welfare department, the agency recorded him delivering what were supposed to be weekly inspirational messages to DHS staff – the people who work on the ground level to administer federally-funded assistance to needy Mississippians. He called the mini-lectures “Tuesday Turnaround.” “We’re going to enhance our culture. We’re going to create a community and a family that is about growing, that is about loving, because if we can love ourselves and love each other, then we can love our clients at a greater level,” DiBiase said in one of the videos. DiBiase went on to tell the story of Shamgar, an Israeli farmer who slaughtered 600 Philistines using an ox goad – “a stick with a nail on it,” DiBiase explained – and delivered Israel. “Now this is in a book I read; I can’t talk about it. You know, I ain’t preaching,” he said in the video. “So what’s the lesson there? Just a simple farmer, right? Who picked up a stick with a nail on it and he delivered a nation. How awesome is that? Here’s the lesson. Start now. Ok? Use what you got. Do what you can. We know that we have issues in our offices, maybe the printers aren’t working, maybe somebody’s got a negative attitude. But that doesn’t mean you have to have a negative attitude, does it? You could respond in love. The printer doesn’t work, I’m sorry. Guess what? There – somebody – don’t let that affect you.” Wednesday was a short day of trial, with U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves announcing after lunchtime that he had matters to handle in other cases. He paused the proceedings until Friday, when the defense is expected to continue its cross examination of Davis. The criminal trial of DiBiase may be the only one to occur within the larger Mississippi welfare scandal.  At one point while Davis was speaking on the witness stand this week, seven blocks away, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and various volunteers were bundling suitcases, part of a partnership with Focus on the Family. The evangelical Christian parachurch had donated 1,350 satchels for some of Mississippi’s roughly 4,000 foster children.  The organization’s concept is that when children are neglected – the most common reason being poverty – or abused, and are taken from their families by state child protection officers, they often don’t possess any belongings, or if they do, they use garbage bags to carry the items.  Laurie Todd-Smith, a former Bryant adviser, came to Jackson to promote the program. She now serves as deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development in Trump’s Administration for Children and Families, the agency that oversees TANF funding nationally.  Each suitcase they planned to pass out to foster children contained a teddy bear and a Bible. “I think Mississippi, of all the states I visited and all the states we’re working with, we are particularly a very faith-filled state,” Todd-Smith said during a Tuesday interview with Supertalk, a Mississippi radio network that received $600,000 in welfare funding during the scandal. “And I just feel so proud that we’re visiting a church today that the churches are engaging in this issue.” ...read more read less