“The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it: Just let it loose and it will defend itself.” - St. Augustine, probably.
Quick Backstory for New Readers:
[tip: this article reads well & quickly if listened to at 1.5x speed on the triangle button on the top right hand of your screen]
In April 2025, James O’Keefe reported a viral video of the President of Florida Tech (John Nicklow) bragging that he lied to the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis to get a $7 million dollar state grant in February 2025, and would “fight back” against DeSantis’s demand to end DEI on campus by intentionally hiding the continuing of DEI (quick summary vid here), having admitted they were scared by by the work of Elon Musk and DOGE that was happening under the “Legendary” heroics of Nate Cavanaugh at that time (Thanks, Elon & Nate!!).
Part 1 of this story then had the whistleblower (me) come forward to catch the University & President lying in their cover-up of the $7 million dollar fraud on Florida’s Governor DeSantis- and make a public call for the firing of President John Nicklow.
The Part 2 of that story then revealed that the University President was specifically aiming to defraud the federal Executive Orders of the Trump Administration on DEI in order to get the $69 million in federal title IV funds of student aid from the Department of Education led by Secretary Linda McMahon - not just the $7 million on DeSantis.
Part 3 revealed that Florida Tech’s defrauding on DEI also included the Department of War: with Florida Tech lying about complying in order to get funds from the Pentagon to enroll Space Force personnel, as covered in a related story by the Gateway Pundit, and shared with a STARRS Townhall lecture presentation.
As an insider and tenured professor for that University, I was the witness & whistleblower for O’Keefe and was recognized with a Citizen Journalism award for courage and integrity at Trump’s Mar a Lago in Nov. 2025- after I paid the price and was fired from a hard-earned tenured position in July 2025 as retaliation for speaking the truth and rejecting their $96,000 bribe offered as hush money to hide the truth (see video link).
The Federal Judiciary’s 4th Circuit Court then upheld the legality of the Trump Executive Orders prohibiting DEI, which was another in a long line of setbacks for Florida Tech & its wayward DEI-President, John Nicklow, who was on video saying he didn’t think Trump’s EO’s would be “compliant with the law” because [wait for it…] his General Counsel, Grace Gamage “was on like 3 webinars a week” about it (I know, I know…please try not to laugh). So, prayers up for all the lying, cheating, retaliating university Presidents out there stupid enough to think they’d beat the Trump Administration in Court on DEI by attending 3 whole webinars a week.
The Secretary of War has now announced the end of Pentagon funds for untrustworthy universities, specifically naming Florida Tech, after my earlier reports to him, that focus on woke indoctrination of our military students instead of actual Education, which follows from our original reporting on this story and the inside lies by Universities to secure military funds- see 28-min expose for full explanation and history if interested.
This story has now been covered by several major podcasts, including the My Price is My Life show with James O’Keefe, the Alex Stein Show, the Find Your Spine podcast of Dr. Chase Spears at the Herzog Foundation, the David Rutherford Show, the Iron Direct Primary Care podcast, Stories of Service podcast, and written about by Theresa Carpenter, and Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA, among many others.
It cost me $100,000 to tell you this, because they tried to bribe my silence. But I rejected that hush money, so that we can make our country better for our kids. Please consider a free or paid subscriber and donating to our GiveSendGo fundraiser as it allows us to stay afloat & fight back against the woke lies.
Now, the New Stuff & Incriminating Evidence:
In January 2025, we won a big Court hearing with Anthony Sabatini Law Firm: Defeating the Motion to Dismiss by Florida Tech and their big corporate law firm (Boies Schiller Flexner LLP) which has defended and admitted to “enabling Harvey Weinstein” and employed Hunter Biden (yikes). They had begged the Judge to throw out the case (they sent 3 high-powered attorneys from Miami to argue with a 45 min. PowerPoint, lol), and the Judge told them no way and that they will have to face Justice (and give us all their files).
This is a huge development, and was covered by James O'Keefe in an epic thread he published about it (direct link click here). The whole thread of O'Keefe's story is great, and worth a good scroll-through. This is a big deal, and means we get to have our day in court for the truth and accountability- and the damages are calculated as at least between $30-$40 million dollars.
While Florida Tech is still dragging its feet to hide as much as they can to run from us in Discovery (we are going to beat them anyways: they can run, but they can not hide), we did just get a very interesting admission of guilt by them revealed by their own words filed yesterday, which is damning for them and may seal the victory for us. The truth will indeed, set us free. Read the juicy details below:
In Florida Tech’s Response to Interrogatory 3 & 4: Florida Tech has now stated, in sworn testimony of Interrogatories to the Court, that they allege that it was “insubordination” by me that justified termination from a tenured professorship because they claim that I “refused to participate in the investigation [into the source of the disclosure of the April 4 2025 meeting to O’Keefe media Group] by emails dated April 10 2025 and April 11 2025”. And they also officially claim that FIT “first suspected” that I had been the whistleblower of the O’Keefe Media Group reporting “on April 14, 2025”, based upon their aforementioned “investigation [April 10/11 2025]”, “because plaintiff refused to be interviewed in relation to the matter”.
But that is simply not true: I didn’t “refuse” to meet- I simply could not meet, as I was on pre-approved work travel to give a talk on our new scientific discovery of a new kind of human memory (called Context Familiarity) in Atlanta, Georgia to the Southeastern Psychological Association (which the University paid for and celebrated)- and thus I was fundamentally unavailable to meet in Melbourne Florida. There are literally time-stamped public photos of me giving the talk in Atlanta on April, and I was there with undergraduate students from my lab at Florida Tech.
Again: I specifically told them that in my immediate email answers to their request to meet on those days, on the record- so they know the truth, but just didn’t say the truth. See: Email responses April 10, 11 2025, where I stated “Hi, unfortunately, as I had stated in an earlier email the same day, I am presently unavailable while presenting at a conference out of town”:
What was that prior message that I had also provided to the Vice President of HR, Jessica Vinson, that day? It stated: “Hi Jessica [Vinson, Florida Tech VP of HR]. Thank you, I am not available this Friday to meet, as I will be out of town delivering a symposium lecture to the Southeastern Psychological Association in Atlanta all day”. So, she knew.
Furthermore, their “meeting requests” for April 10th and 11th 2025 also never made any reference to any “investigation” that was being done nor any purpose or subject of the meeting- it was simply a request to meet under no subject line of topics or purpose- and for which I was simply unavailable on immediate short notice due to being on pre-approved University work travel- which the University paid for. They were told so (e.g. that I was on business travel and thus unavailable), by me on record, too- so they knew that to be true, instead of the false representation that they have now made to The Court via Interrogatories.
My being merely unavailable for a short-notice meeting while on approved work-travel is certainly not justifiable “insubordination” to terminate (on July 23, 2025) the lifetime employment of an award-winning tenured professor with positive work performance annual evaluations, who they knew (by at least April 14th 2025 according to their own admission in Court filings) to be a whistleblower on April 4-9 2025, and it is definitely not a fire-able offense of a tenured professor by their using a secret panel procedure without notice nor due process.
Moving on in time, by April 13th, I was *approved* by Florida Tech for medical leave via Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA; my post-partum wife and newborn baby were chronically sick at that time, and medically pre-approved leave all semester). That FMLA leave is federally protected, and which also federally prohibits me from being responsive to meetings and requests for meetings at my place of employment. Yet, they use that false excuse of “refused to be interviewed” to justify their wrongful termination of a tenured contract for indefinite lifetime employment of a whistleblower… Because they were caught, and they were mad. But Justice is Coming.
My FMLA leave to care for a sick family was both medically-approved, and employer approved, and was from April 14 2025 through May 4th 2025-, and again on May 7th through May 15th: so, it was impossible for me to be responsive to their messages to meet at that time. Indeed I had an automatic message reply in place to be responsive thereof, which they know, per below:
Despite these documented facts of which they are and were already aware, Florida Tech now represents to the Court in sworn Interrogatories that they claim I “refused” to meet with them, and they claimed it was a “private meeting” that was recorded: which was already thoroughly debunked here as not being a private meeting at all. Its absurd, a full theater of the absurd- and these people are clowns.
In fact, in several further communications on the topic of that meeting , I said that I would be “glad to meet” with them when available. Being “glad to meet”, on record, is not “refusing to meet”. It is agreeing to meet.
More so, I actually said yes that I would meet with them along with my attorney. It was actually the dopey DEI Vice President of HR, Jessica Vinson & Director of HR Pat Francois, & Legal Department’s Ronelle Mook (a trifecta of HR Karen’s straight out of central casting & high on their own supply of smarmy incompetence) that refused to meet with us (not the other way around), on record, in May 5-6 2025, since she never followed up to my invitation to -yes- meet with her, with my attorney or during a livestream instead (since it is quite clear that they lie without accountability).
Yes, you read that right: The Vice President of HR, Jessica Vinson (actually told me I was not allowed to bring (or even cc-) my attorney to a meeting that she was trying to corner me into with her own legal team present, and on apparent legal matters. Astounding- but not surprising, given how poor of a reputation the FIT HR leaders have among other faculty on campus for being wildly incompetent.
Furthermore, in respect to policy and procedures for these kinds of situations at Florida Tech for termination (section 2.9.1): there is no Policy of FIT that governs these procedures of a “disciplinary committee”. What policy number and subsection is that procedure and process described in the Faculty Handbook edition that was current and governing at that time of April-July 2025?
Originally, the Florida Tech attorneys filed sworn statements to the Court, and to the Judge, under penalty of perjury, that they said the termination was for “escalating patters of hostility, defiance of repeated warnings, caustic behavior violating faculty code of conduct”, [all of which are wildly false, and provably false, by the way…].
How do we know those allegations are false by FIT, and can be prove that? Well, yes we can prove it, and we can start by simply seeing the letters from colleagues and supervisors praising me and recommending me for top performance awards in the entire University, while President Nicklow even wrote me love letters after he fired me in Sept 2025 just like he earlier did in 2023. Or, we can consider that fact that the Florida Tech Dean invited me to deliver a Keynote Address to the Honor Society in March 2025, which was praised by the Provost, parents, alumni, students, and colleagues- and which you can see here because it has been proudly posted online for a full year and I don’t hide the truth].
Those great things and accolades from colleagues and supervisors followed being asked by the Florida Tech Vice President of Development, Cassie Pericek (who low-key really talked a lot of dirt on FIT via chats), to deliver a keynote talk on my NASA missions for the Florida Tech STEM Power Day in September 2024, and winning Best in Show for the Florida Tech Northup Grumman Showcase in 2024 with my students, and celebrated again by students in 2025, and while the Vice Provost wrote me letters in March & June 2025 stating that he was “admiring your resiliency amid adversity”.
And of course… ON APRIL 1 2025, FLORIDA TECH HAD JUST OFFERED ME A RENEWED EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT OF A TENURED PROFESSORSHIP WITH INDEFINITE DURATION FOR LIFE from the Provost, Dr. John Kiss, (which I signed), which was 3 days before the meeting recording on the O’Keefe story, and right before then they switched gears entirely to fire me. The Florida Tech Provost also wrote in that letter: “Thank You for your contributions to the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts and Florida Tech. I look forward to working with you and your colleagues in the coming academic year”.
That is not the mark of a professor warranting immediate termination from tenured employment for so-called “escalating patters of hostility, defiance of repeated warnings, caustic behavior violating faculty code of conduct”- but rather is the clear pattern of a rising star, fresh off of awards from the NIH and NASA and major scientific discoveries, just entering his prime- right before being subjected to wrongful termination as whistleblower retaliation by Florida Tech. They had literally just re-signed me to a lifetime tenured contract- days before the whistleblowing activity. I told you they were incompetent clowns.
If their argument to the Judge will be that: “We aren’t serious when engaging in formal business & employment contracts for life, raises, praises, payments, and letters; and don’t believe us when we sign contracts and say stuff- but totally believe us now in Court when we deny accountability of wrong-doing” - then yeah, I think the Jury would welcome hearing that.
And OK, here it gets even better: on June 30, 2025: The President of Florida Tech had just given me a PAY RAISE, to $99,000 per 9 month year! After re-signing a lifetime tenured contract 90 days earlier April 1, 2025, and before then breaching that freshly-inked contract for life by approving my termination from it only ten days later on July 9 2025, according to Florida Tech’s own sworn declaration to the Court.
Nevertheless, despite their obviously ridiculously false claims that I was somehow “hostile” and “caustic” etc. or something, Florida Tech a) re-hired me after performance evaluations for a lifetime tenured contract on April 1, 2025, b) praised me for great work amid resilience and adversity, c) raised my pay on July 30, 2025 citing “teamwork and mission-focused attitude”- while wanting you to believe that they simultaneously fired me with no notice from a tenured contract because I was “insubordinate” and “hostile” but definitely not fired (wink, wink) for whistleblower retaliation of the $76 million dollars in fraud I had reported to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on April 8th, 2025 and with O’Keefe Media Group.
All the while, Florida Tech still publicly maintained their proud video feature of me on their social media channels (I think it is probably still there, too, unlike the how they stealth erased me from their feature of my scientific work on the International Space Station that I did together with their Provost, Dr. John Kiss- but I caught it because the internet never forgets…).
Yet, Florida Tech & their lawyers went on to formally claim to the Judge that that I was “waging a campaign to restyle himself a whistleblower” [also hilariously false, and arguably defamatory statement in public filings because I not ‘waging any campaign’ *styled as a” whistleblower but clearly an actual Real One], and further stating to the Judge that my claim “should be dismissed”. That is, Florida Tech & their high-priced attorneys are on record TELLING the JUDGE that to DENY my allegation that “he was dismissed because he recorded and subsequently reported a faculty meeting in which state grants on DEI were discussed”.
Wow!! Now, it turns out that this “allegation” of mine [that I was dismissed for recording and reporting the faculty meeting] is Entirely Correct & True- because they are now Admitting it in their own Discovery that they begged the judge to not have to provide us (which he REJECTED).
Of course, an obligatory reminder here that the Judge roundly REJECTED those false claims by Florida Tech, and DENIED their Motion to Dismiss: per the Order below:
So, now, in their court filings, they are finally saying the truth: that the termination *was* for actions related to the O’Keefe story reporting of their fraud upon the state and federal governments, which is protected activity and whistleblower protected.
That seems pretty powerful, “a smoking gun”, towards making the case against them in an open-and-shut victory of whistleblower retaliation and wrongful termination for having caught them defrauding DeSantis for $7 million, Trump and Linda McMahon for $69 million, Sec. Hegseth and the Pentagon for untold millions, and you the taxpayer for at least $76 million dollars annually.
Illegal retaliation like that is just like what I was warned & threatened would happen by Florida Tech when I was first hired as a non-tenured faculty in 2020: the Dean’s sometime-spouse (Dr. Rich Griffith, another cuckhold faculty there and a decision-maker on tenure and promotion decisions) reached out to me as a communication go-between proxy with the Administration to tell me that:
a) the University engaged in illegal breach of contract with me and another faculty member (Dr. Amanda Thayer)
b) the University knew it was illegal to retaliate against me if I were to sue them for it (I didn’t)
c) the University would retaliate against me anyways if I were to sue them for the illegal breach of contract in 2021 (I didn’t).
d) the University would also intentionally make my miserable by creating a hostile workplace for me (they did).
And Yes, God has a hilarious sense of humor: this is indeed the same “Rich Griffith” that FIT President mentioned in the original O’Keefe footage for having been the person who had the DEI website of ICCM Institute that was caught by Ron DeSantis’s Office shakedown of him in Feb. 2025, and whom President Nicklow infamously said he called on the phone to say he would “fight back” against DeSantis & Trump Administrations on DEI. Even the University’s *own* paper, titled “Nobody knows what to do: Florid Tech alters DEI policies” cited Dr. Rich Griffith’s ICCM Institute as a core violator of DEI. God loves Irony.
That admitted toxic culture and practice of retaliation and hostile workplace, as attested to by Dr. Rich Griffith (who, ironically portrays himself as an “I-O Psychologist” expert of workplace leadership and culture, hilariously…I told you they were clowns…) is why other faculty routinely texted the proof of their toxic treatment by Florida Tech, too. For instance, Dr. Amanda Thayer (also, hilariously another so-called “Industrial-Organizational Psychologist expert of ‘Teams” and “leadership” “culture"” at DeSantis’ DEI-find of the ICCM Institute led by Rich Griffith, lol), said that she “reached out to so many people for help and got nowhere; got a giant F-you [from Florida Tech]… I can’t promote the university at this point, not with the bullshit that has been slung at us… forget dumpster fire, this is a landfill fire”.
She was not alone in such toxic sentiments about FIT, as the Head of the School of Psychology, Dr. Julie Costopoulus (who featured prominently in the O’Keefe video expose of DEI as one of the co-conspirators to the fraud of disguising DEI course names from tuition-paying students, and who after over 20 years in academia has an embarrassingly-low citation count of 196 and paltry h-index of 4), has texted that she “hopes Administrators start making some good decisions” and encouraged me to “hang in there, the drama is exhausting”. Another senior faculty member, Dr. Marshall Jones (President-elect of the Faculty Senate) stated: “I am wrestling with some demons with my complicated relationship with the University”, - all under the leadership of President Nicklow, Provost Kiss, Dean Lisa Steelman, and Chair of Board of Trustees Kristen Dreggors.
And, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Is that direct threat of retaliation from Dr. Rich Griffith in 2021 the only time that Florida Tech directly threatened me with retaliation for reporting the truth’? Nope. Turns out, that in 2023, the then-Provost Hamid Rassoul, PhD, also directly threatened me with firing if I were to report my supervisor to HR for the hostile workplace that I had just-then discussed with Rassoul as Provost. I had to remind him that what he was saying was Illegal (i.e.: engaging in federally-protected activity such as whistleblower disclosures, is, well, federally-protected), and he agreed it was illegal. Hamid, 73, kept records of that meeting, and emailed them to many people who were not present for it. Later, it was the same Dr. Hamid Rassoul who would go on to sign my termination letter in July 2025 as whistleblower retaliation for having caught Florida Tech conspiring to defraud on DEI. (And yes, that was from the same Provost Hamid Rassoul who also wrote me letters in March & June 2025 “admiring your resiliency amid adversity”. These people are circus clowns, from top to bottom.
Now in 2025, Florida Tech now faces the reality that the Judge already ruled against the University in their Motion to Dismiss (with prejudice)… but the Judge is not alone: the State of Florida has also already determined that the termination was not “for cause” but was instead wrongful termination as whistleblower protection.
How did the State of Florida determine that? Well, when unemployment benefits were filed for and sought, the reason of termination was listed as whistleblower retaliation. This requires the State to investigate with the Employer (Florida Tech) to see what Cause there was for “insubordination” termination, so that the State is not defrauded by false claims for unemployment benefits by employees fired for cause.
Well, it turns out that the State tried several times to get Florida Tech to respond and refute those claims- but Florida Tech never responded, because they can not respond with the truth. The could have responded if I was wrong, and had a duty to save the State from being defrauded if I was lying- but they didn’t, because I was right in telling the truth.
So, the State of Florida issued their official determination, written in the name of Governor RON DESANTIS, in support of the employee (me, Dr. Rick Addante), confirming that the cause of termination was indeed whistleblower retaliation and thus disbursing (meager) benefits. Notably, the State of Florida stated:
“Notice of Approval Reasonings & Findings- Based on available information, it is determined that the claimant was discharged for reasons other than misconduct connected with the work. The employer or the employer’s representative failed to respond to the department’s request for separation information. Additional Reasonings & Findings- The discharge was for a reason other than misconduct connected with the work. Applicable Section of Law The department made this determination in accordance with Section 443.101, Florida Statutes.”
So, where does that leave Florida Tech? Screwed, most likely.
And by the way: there is a whole lot more to come….
Please consider donating to our GiveSendGo fundraiser as it allows us to stay afloat & fight back against the lies. It cost me $100,000 to tell you this, because they tried to bribe my silence to pay for you to be kept in the dark. But I rejected that hush money, so that we can live in the light of truth - and make our country better for our kids.
Remember: it didn’t have to be this way for Florida Tech: they could have a) told the truth, b) followed the law, c) simply be competent and ethical. They chose not to do any of those three simply things. They chose poorly.
Bonus Material for paid subscribers: Full Videos
See from Old Post: Summary of $69 Million in Title IV Fraud of Title IV Funds upon Secretary Linda McMahon at the Department of Education and the Trump Administration by Florida Institute of Technology:
And see summary of Military aspect of the matter, as discussed with Dr. Chase Spears at the Herzog Foundation:
And an extended clip from that show:
Plus Special Bonus Content:
I was honored, truly, recently to learn that James O’Keefe has placed our photo of us mowing lawns to raise funds in the August Floridian heat after being fired as a whistleblower, placed on his Wall of Fame, alongside his receiving press credentials photo at the Pentagon, and with the President of the United States. Truly, humbled by a great man, James: He is a greater man than most people know, has a heart of gold, with a titanium spine, and a ironclad conscience of integrity.
Wow, they picked a fight with a fighter that doesn’t back down! Very well documented by you. I hope and pray you all are successful. Thank you for being one of the rare people that places such high values on integrity and truth!