Maxwell: The Hope Florida grand jury report verified that public money was stolen and that people involved lied. You’d probably be in handcuffs if you’d try to pull this off.

Last week, a grand jury report out of Tallahassee confirmed what most people already suspected — that the schemers in the Hope Florida scandal took millions of dollars from taxpayers.

They took money from a lawsuit settlement that was meant to provide health care to needy people and redirected it to political campaigns.

“We can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes ….” the Leon County jury concluded, saying funds “were misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities.”

So don’t let anyone lie to you about that.

he jury even felt compelled to define the word “theft” in the opening of its report. Yet somehow, no one was arrested.

This is yet another example of this country’s two-tiered system of “justice.” People who commit petty crimes are locked up for years while white-collar miscreants are handled with kid gloves.

Think about it: If you were caught stealing millions of dollars from taxpayers, do you think you’d skate?

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who played a central role in the grand jury’s report, knows this all reeks. So he has taken to lying about the case — and threatening those who talk about it.

oth Uthmeier and Gov. Ron DeSantis have claimed the money siphoned to political campaigns was not public. As noted above, the grand jury repeatedly stressed it was.

Uthmeier has also claimed that the scandal was drummed up by Democrats, calling ita “politically motivated witch hunt driven by the Democrats and a far left Democrat state attorney.”

Again, that is simply untrue. The accusations were lodged by fellow Republicans. GOP members of the state House were the first to formally probe the matter. In fact, the grand jury explicitly wrote: “Representative Robert ‘Alex’ Andrade is the complaining witness in this case. He is an attorney in Pensacola and a Republican House Representative for District 2.”

So, that’s another lie.

Uthmeier also claimed the grand jury came from “the most liberal county in the state.” Again, untrue. Democrats don’t even make up the majority of voters in Leon County, the way they do in, say, neighboring Gadsden.

But Uthmeier wasn’t about to let facts get in the way of his narrative … or his threats.

After a Central Florida TV reporter asked him about the grand jury report that was first obtained by CBS News Miami, Uthmeier suggested that journalists who asked him questions about the report might be committing a crime.

“Are you trying to solicit a crime here in violation of the law?” he asked a reporter from WKMG.

The intimidation tactic was both disturbing and nonsensical. It is not against the law for journalists to ask questions or for anyone to discuss published reports. Uthmeier’s not going to bully this state or its watchdogs into silence about misappropriated public money.

And interestingly, when a Fox News anchor also asked Uthmeier about the grand jury report last week, Uthmeier didn’t threaten him with arrest. Instead, Uthmeier smugly smiled, once again blamed Democrats and then claimed that the report “totally vindicated” everyone involved.

Of course, it did no such thing. But Uthmeier had then twice talked about a grand jury report that he’d previously said it might be illegal to discuss.

The scandal was complicated by design. If you want to read the full details — and I suggest you do — check out the grand jury’s entire 19-page document on CBS Miami’s website.

But in essence, the jury confirmed what Florida journalists had already reported — that the DeSantis administration diverted money from a settlement with a company called Centene, which had been accused of overbilling the state, to political campaigns. The jury said $10 million worth of money-shuffling was done with assistance from groups like the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Hope Florida nonprofit championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis. The jury even produced a flow chart to document the web of transactions.

The end result, according to the jury, was that millions in “taxpayer money” were spent on political campaigns as DeSantis was trying to defeat two citizen amendments designed to protect abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana.

DeSantis would’ve been fine to campaign against those two amendments with his own time and money. But the grand jury concluded that “a large portion of the money ended up in the coffers of the Republican Party of Florida.”

The jury also stressed that Uthmeier, who was then DeSantis’ chief of staff, controlled two of the committees and “was in a position of authority over those involved in settling with Centene.”

The office of Ashley Moody, who was attorney general at the time, also signed off on the deal. Notably, though, Moody didn’t trash the grand jury last week or even try to argue that the financing scheme was legally sound. Instead, she posted a lengthy tweet that said the DeSantis administration was responsible for negotiating the deal and that her office “had no knowledge of how funds would be spent.” Her decision to point fingers rather than defend the deal was telling.

There are still questions about why the grand jury didn’t demand accountability. And why the report wasn’t publicly released through traditional channels. Especially considering that the report ended with public policy recommendations on how to prevent a scandal like this from ever happening again.

The jury did an impressively thorough job in some regards, but essentially just shrugged its collective shoulders at witnesses who claimed to have faulty memories. The jury also didn’t list Uthmeier as one of its witnesses, despite mentioning him 18 times in its report.

Uthmeier — the guy threatening those who discuss this case — is on the ballot this year. He’s trying to get elected as attorney general, the post to which DeSantis temporarily appointed him last year. And it’s now quite clear that no informed person can vote for this man and still claim they care about transparent government. Or even basic truth.