In 1993, at the end of Jon's freshman year of high school, his father was offered a job with Allen Canning located in Siloam Springs in Benton County, Arkansas.

During this time, fellow basketball and soccer player, musician, and close friend Tim Berry died in a car accident at the age of sixteen.

During his high school and college years, Woods lifeguarded at the Siloam Springs municipal pool and Dawn Hill Country Club, where he also taught private swimming lessons.

Growing up in the Arkansas Delta, Woods and his brother, Dustin, were heavily influenced by the Memphis Music Scene and events held on Mud Island during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Some of the legendary musicians who regularly traveled on this stretch of highway during the 1950s and 1960s included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Fats Domino, and Sonny Burgess.

During his legislative career, he sponsored 103 bills that became law, pushed for the establishment of nearly a dozen task forces and commissions, and passed four constitutional amendments.

In 2015, Woods received an award from the American Red Cross for performing life saving CPR on a visitor to the Arkansas State Capitol.

[11][12][13] During his first term he showed his ability to bring people of differing points of view together by making Arkansas' first Umbilical Cord Blood Bank a reality.

[23] Woods served on the Senate Insurance and Commerce, Joint Performance Review, Public Retirement & Social Security Programs, and Judiciary committees as well as the Arkansas Legislative Council.

[25] In the 90th General Assembly Woods earned the highest civilian recognition from the Arkansas National Guard, and referred his third and fourth ballot measures to the voters.

A large number of other Arkansas lawmakers held a press conference to endorse Trump's rival, Marco Rubio, for president.

Donald Trump is a Christian Conservative who is strongly pro-life, understands the importance of the 2nd amendment, supports a limited government, is anti new taxes and loves his family and country deeply.

I believe Donald Trump’s leadership as President of the United States will Make America Great Again.”We are honored to have the support and endorsement of Senator Woods.

[32] March 1, 2017, one year to the day after being the only elected official in Arkansas to endorse Donald Trump in the Republican 2016 Republican presidential primary, Woods was indicted for his alleged collusion in a kickback scheme involving Oren Paris, III, president of Ecclesia College (a Christian college), and Randell Shelton Jr., of Alma in Crawford County, AR.

[35][36][37][38] The trial was controversial due in part to the actions of the lead FBI agent, Robert Cessario, who pleaded guilty in a plea agreement on August 17, 2022, to destroying exculpatory evidence.

[45][46] In December, 2017 he was removed from the case and was put under investigation by the Office of Inspector General, according to court documents, and faced criminal prosecution.

[47] Two days of pretrial hearings, January 25 and 26, 2018, laid out in detail the circumstances under which the FBI (Cessario's) computer was used to collect copies of the audio files recorded covertly by former State Representative Micah Neal.

FBI agent Robert Cessario acknowledged that he does plan on suing his doctor, but said any lawsuit he files is unlikely to get the attention the Woods case has received.

[56] Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Elser then told Judge Brooks that late Thursday, January 25, 2018, the FBI sent a computer forensics examiner to Shane Wilkinson's office to make copies of specific files.

However, upon cross-examination (by the defense) of the expert who collected the copies, it was only then revealed that the files were not taken from the law firm's original hard drive that had stored the audio directly from Neal.

[59] Conviction After nearly four weeks of trial and two days of jury deliberations, on May 3, 2018, Woods was found guilty of fifteen federal counts for soliciting and accepting kickbacks for the distribution of government funds.

[60] Woods was sentenced by Judge Timothy Brooks to 220 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution on September 6, 2018.

All of this information was learned during the pre trial phase, and the defense and prosecution were ordered by Judge Timothy Brooks to not bring it up in any way in the presence of the jury.

[74] It was unanimously rejected on August 31, 2022; the panel held that “the purportedly newly discovered evidence buttressed rather than rebutted the case against Woods and was immaterial or previously available”.

[75][76] NACDL is a professional organization in the United States that advocates for justice and due process for people accused of crimes or other misconduct.

The NACDL said: "This case involves an important question of criminal law: Under the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, what is the appropriate remedy when a government agent acts in shocking bad faith, intentionally “wiping” his government-issued, undercover laptop computer instead of delivering it for a forensic evaluation as instructed by the Judge?

The Court found that the agent acted in bad faith and violated Appellant’s due process rights, but nevertheless fashioned a remedy short of dismissal.

[82][83] Following are several excerpts from the heavily redacted OIG report:[84] In recent years, President Trump has publicly stated that he was given bad advice regarding his hiring decisions.

[86][87] According to court documents, the Department of Justice has refused to comply with FOIA laws regarding the OIG's investigation findings of Special Agent Robert Cessario.

Approximately eighteen months later on April 9, 2024, Doug Thompson received correspondence from the FBI that 3,783 pages of “potentially responsive records were found and that it would take 67 months to complete processing of the records.”[91] This delay resulted in a lawsuit being filed by the journalists stating “the FBI has violated the FOIA by failing to make a determination to the request within 20 working days.” [92] [93] On Nov. 26, 2024, Judge Timothy Brooks said the agency must start producing documents in batches with the first 500 pages to be released by the end of the year.