From Florida Phoenix:
Democrats go on the offense, Republicans play defense after Hope Florida grand jury report leak
First Lady Casey DeSantis and Gov Ron DeSantis at a May 20, 2025, Hope Florida press conference in Tampa. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Florida Democrats went on the offensive Thursday against Republican leaders after the release of a blistering statewide grand jury report that found $10 million in Medicaid funds were “misappropriated” and wound up being used for “political activities.”
That report — obtained by CBS Miami and posted on its website — did not result in anyone getting charged but blasted several top state officials, including Attorney General James Uthmeier and Jason Weida, now chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The report also says U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, the former state attorney general, knew about the $10 million transfer of Medicaid funds from a $67 million drug overpricing settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation.
The foundation “quickly funneled” the money to two non-profit groups that wound up directing some of the money to a campaign against an effort to legalize recreational marijuana.
The probe originated after the Republican-controlled House held hearings in the spring of 2025 amid speculation that First Lady Casey DeSantis — who started the Hope Florida initiative — might run for governor. Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, turned over information to the Tallahassee prosecutor that became the catalyst for the grand jury investigation.
Andrade told the Florida Phoenix Thursday it would be “inappropriate” to discuss the grand jury report.
Democrats say the 19-page grand jury report shows that top Republicans knowingly flouted Florida law by diverting the money paid by Centene Corp., a managed care company, from state coffers to political action committees Uthmeier controlled.
Democrats want voters to keep that in mind when they head to the polls in November.
“This is blatant corruption,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told reporters Thursday during a media availability. Joining her were Democratic U.S. senatorial candidate Angie Nixon and Jose Javier Rodriquez, the Democrat running for attorney general.
“And for 30 years, Republicans have controlled this state, and somewhere along the way, they started acting like taxpayer money was theirs to spend, state government was theirs to exploit, and nobody had the right to question them,” Fried said.
“Authoritarianism can look like leaders abusing government power, evading accountability, and treating public institutions like their own. That’s exactly the warning signs we are seeing here.”
Meanwhile, Uthmeier and his former boss, Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, played down the findings as they focused their remarks on the release of the report, which has been sealed for months, to a South Florida CBS News affiliate. (Uthmeier had been DeSantis’ chief of staff and ran the anti-amendment campaign.)
The station reported the grand jury’s findings and made the document available for the public to read.
Appearing in Lake City, the governor said the only apparent crime was committed by “whoever leaked the grand jury report,” and warned there would be “consequences for that in a variety of ways.” He insisted the entire investigation was designed to “smear” his wife.
DeSantis said he’d “reviewed” the $10 million transfer amid the controversy and that “it was legally sound. It was appropriate and it was consistent with the state’s mission. And that was true then and it’s true now.”
Appearing during his own press conference in The Villages, Uthmeier called the investigation a “politically motivated witch hunt driven by Democrats and a far-left Democrat state attorney in Tallahassee.”
“Here’s what I’ll say: Nobody did anything wrong here. There was not even probable cause to move forward. This is a hoax, and all it did was show that the Democrats can’t win on policy, they can’t win on the law.”
But Democrats, noting the Republican-controlled House of Representatives had launched the original legislative investigation into Hope Florida, insist this is a not partisan issue.
They insist all voters will care about the grand jury’s 16 findings and that the allegedly illegal transfer of $10 million during the 2024 election cycle to help defeat a recreational marijuana constitutional amendment will play a role in the 2026 election cycle.
‘My opponent is a criminal’
“I’ve been traveling the state talking about how we’re going to return the Attorney General’s office to the people, refocus on priorities that are going to make people’s lives better, tackling crime, costs, and corruption,” Rodriguez said during the Democratic availability. “My opponent is a criminal. He’s a criminal who should resign. He should come clean and turn himself in.”
A former Democratic state senator and attorney, Rodriguez said the grand jury found the money was misappropriated but had insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally.
“Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida,” the grand jury report reads. “This decision was the original misappropriation, and no witness would take responsibility for making the decision or had any memory of who made it.”
And because “virtually everyone involved is a lawyer and acted on the advice of other lawyers,” the grand jury concluded that fact would pose an “impediment to criminal prosecution.”
Rodriguez, however, put the blame directly on Uthmeier.
“James Uthmeier was the person with authority here. It was his [political] committee. He directed the money. He directed those involved. And you know, Floridians need leaders who are going to clean house in Tallahassee. To clean house means to break down that wall of silence, the conspiratorial corruption that we have in Tallahassee, that this grand jury report lays out,” Rodriquez said.
Nixon called the diversion the” ultimate betrayal of working families.”
“Think about this: Ashley Moody stole $10 million from children in Florida. Everyone involved in this, Ashley Moody included, should resign. They should resign. Enough is enough.”
Nixon said she was going to file complaints against Uthmeier, Moody, and Weida with the Florida Bar. She encouraged Florida voters to do the same.
Moody on her X page issued a “clarifying” statement.
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful David Jolly, meanwhile, released a statement saying the investigation into the transfer must be reopened.
“The scheme defunded healthcare services for poor children to instead advance the political agenda of Gov. Ron DeSantis,” the Jolly camp said in a prepared release. “With key leaders in the scheme refusing to answer questions, and no one held accountable, the investigation must be reopened.”
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