ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: DeSantis stresses his wife ‘devised’ Hope Florida. (Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel column, April 16, 2025)

Florida Boy Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS, et ux "own" this scandal.  It was our former Congressman from St. Johns County, RONALD DION  DeSANTIS, who appointed Commissioner SARAH ARNOLD to the St. Johns County Board of Cunty Commissioners.  Her devotion and friendship with devious destructive clearcutting developer-Senator TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON apparently got her the gig. SILVERLEAF.  ARNOLD refused to meet with any citizens concerned about the development and provided no contact information before she was sworn into office, with SILVERLEAF her first vote. 

When this louche lady was elected three years ago, ARNOLD's huge signs bragged thatshe was appointed by DeSANTIS. Not a BFOQ. ARNOLD was among three votes April 15, 2025 to hire the law firm of Florida House Speaker-to-be SAMUEL PAUL GARRISON as County Attorney. We will soon learn whether the outrageous otiose, other-directed, arrogant SARAH ARNOLD seeks another term.  Remember who duked her into the job and why.

From Orlando Sentinel:

Maxwell: DeSantis stresses his wife ‘devised’ Hope Florida

Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel column, April 16, 2025

Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen in this February photo with his wife, Casey, stressed Tuesday that his wife – not him – “devised” the now-embattled Hope Florida Foundation, saying: “I really had no ownership of this.”

By SCOTT MAXWELL | smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com | Orlando Sentinel

UPDATED: April 16, 2025 at 4:36 PM EDT

Developments in the DeSantis family’s Hope Florida scandal are coming so fast and furious that it’s hard to keep up.

Here are three from just the past 24 or so hours:

1) Late Tuesday night, the GOP lawmaker leading the probe into the diverted state money said that, if he was drawing “a RICO conspiracy web chart,” the state’s new attorney general would be “at the center of it.”

2) The chairman of Hope Florida Foundation championed by Casey DeSantis made a stunning admission — under oath — about this nonprofit that received $10 million in public money: “We have no monitoring procedures. We have no staff.”

3) Ron DeSantis wanted to make sure everyone knew that his wife — not him — was really the one in charge of this newly scrutinized organization, saying: “I really had no ownership of this. I didn’t devise it. She devised it. She set the vision.”

If your brows raised on No. 1, they were probably three feet above your head by No. 3.

One thing that seems clear is that House Republicans have shown little interest in pumping the brakes on pushing for answers. Nor should they.

Based on what we know so far, it seems that public money meant to help struggling Floridians access health care was redirected to fund political campaigns. That’s just sick.

Another thing that seems clear is that DeSantis is still going hard after the Republican lawmakers who want his wife’s organization to explain what it did with all that public money.

During a press conference Tuesday that turned into a bit of a tirade, DeSantis referred to the legislative leaders from his own party as both a “cabal” and a “junta,” accusing them of spreading a “manufactured hoax.”

But while DeSantis was claiming all the accusations were one big lie, the chairman of his wife’s foundation was testifying under oath that “mistakes were made.”

The most shocking revelation by Hope Florida foundation chairman Joshua Hay was that this group, which received millions in public money, seemed to have no safeguards or even elementary business practices in place.

“We have no monitoring procedures. We have no staff,” Hay said.

That’s the group to which DeSantis’ health department gave $10 million? In what world is that OK?

In case you need a quick recap, the state of Florida negotiated a $67 million settlement with a Medicaid contractor that had overbilled the state. But instead of keeping all that money for the state’s health care division, the state steered $10 million to the Hope Florida foundation that Casey DeSantis started with help from her husband as a way to supposedly help struggling Floridians get back on their feet.

The foundation then gave $10 million to two committees that helped fund yet anothercommittee chaired by now-Attorney General James Uthmeier that helped defeat the medical marijuana amendments on last year’s ballot.

Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican leading the investigative hearings, referred to all that as “money laundering.”

If true, it’s hard to imagine how any Floridian of any political persuasion would think that’s OK.

But GOP leaders in the House say they believe it’s more than just not OK; that it looks illegal.

“I firmly believe at this point that federal crimes have been committed,” Andrade said. GOP House Speaker Daniel Perez has also said some of the money-moving “looks as if it could be illegal.”

Late Tuesday, Andrade got even more specific, saying that he was particularly focused on Jeff Aaron, the foundation’s attorney, and James Uthmeier, the governor’s former chief of staff and now attorney general who helped run the campaign to defeat the marijuana amendments.

“If I’m drawing like a Rico conspiracy web chart, it’s Jeff Aaron and James Uthmeier at the center of it,” Andrade said.

Andrade made those comments during an interview on One America News Network with former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, a guy who knows a thing or two about federal investigations.

Andrade also scoffed at the governor’s repeated use of the word “liberal” to describe those asking tough questions, saying, “There’s nothing liberal about opposing money laundering and wire fraud and Medicaid fraud.”

DeSantis claims GOP legislators are coming after him because they’re doing the bidding of the marijuana industry and trying to distract from the fact that they’ve been ineffective leaders. The governor’s publicly paid staffers also took to Twitter/X to attack the Republican lawmakers and Florida newspapers that have been asking questions.

But GOP legislators seem undeterred — though Andrade said that, if any kind of prosecution takes place, it would probably have to come from the feds.

That seems about right. Partly because this state’s attorney general is part of the mess. And partly because Florida’s state-level prosecutors rarely go after political corruption. (Remember, they all sat on the sidelines as Seminole County’s train-wreck tax collector Joel Greenberg generated one controversy after another until the feds stepped in.)

While all this was going on, DeSantis also took time during his Tuesday press conference to make that case that the nonprofit group, which had received only $2 million in donations before it got $10 million from the state, wasn’t really his program … it was his wife’s.

“I really had no ownership of this,” the governor said. “I didn’t devise it. She devised it. She set the vision. She executed the vision, and it’s been great to see the positive results.”

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com

Originally Published: April 16, 2025 at 3:15 PM EDT