Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry Pays Fine, Admits Thousands in Undisclosed Free Travel Amid Ethics Concerns
The Louisiana Board of Ethics voted Friday to approve a settlement requiring Landry to pay $900 for failing to report a private jet trip to Hawaii in 2021, along with other flights he took as attorney general and governor.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. Jeff Landry has paid a fine and admitted to accepting nearly $13,000 in unreported flights, closing an ethics case that critics say highlights his disregard for transparency and his growing control over the very watchdogs meant to hold him accountable.
The Louisiana Board of Ethics voted Friday to approve a settlement requiring Landry to pay $900 for failing to report a private jet trip to Hawaii in 2021, along with other flights he took as attorney general and governor. The flights — nearly 20 in total — were valued at more than $13,000 and provided by wealthy allies and political organizations that support his administration.
Landry’s Hawaii trip, flown on the private plane of aviation executive and political donor Greg Mosing, went undisclosed for two years before the board formally charged him. The revelation surfaced weeks before Landry’s 2023 gubernatorial win, raising alarms about his transparency just as he ascended to Louisiana’s highest office.
By signing the settlement, Landry avoided a public trial that could have carried penalties of up to $10,000 per violation. Instead, the deal quietly ended a probe that had dragged on for more than a year. Ethics board veteran La Koshia Roberts criticized the outcome, saying Landry’s legal team dragged out negotiations in bad faith. “A middle school or high school student could read and understand the forms,” she said. “Mr. Landry is an attorney by education and profession. No, the forms are not difficult to understand.”
The governor’s actions are part of a troubling pattern. In 2022, the board privately warned Landry to stop using campaign money to pay off a personal car loan. And since becoming governor, he has championed legislation that stripped away protections for the board’s independence, giving himself authority to appoint a majority of its members and raising barriers to future investigations.
Critics argue the changes have turned the once-independent ethics board into a political arm of the governor’s office, eroding public trust. Roberts said the shift threatens to silence the board’s role as an impartial check on misconduct: “There has been this strong push to shift it to a strictly executive, governor-controlled body that lacks independence.”
For now, the settlement closes the immediate case against Landry. But questions remain over how a governor who violated basic disclosure laws is now reshaping the system designed to hold him — and other elected officials — to account.
