CASEY DESANTIS
3 26 BELAted?
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After a grand jury report found that Florida misappropriated $10 million in taxpayer money, the DeSantis administration is arguing that the anonymous leak of the report was the only crime committed. And that reporters asking about its contents may be breaking the law. “Let’s do a little exercise, here. Pull out your phone,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told a reporter Thursday who asked for comment on the report, which had been sealed for months before CBS Miami reported on it Wednesday. Leaking a grand jury report is a first-degree misdemeanor.
Uthmeier, who refused to discuss the report beyond calling it a politically motivated hoax, told the reporter to look up a Florida statute banning criminal solicitation. “Are you trying to solicit a crime here in violation of the law?” Uthmeier asked, smiling. “I did not think so.” The report found that $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was funneled through the DeSantis-aligned charity, Hope Florida, to two nonprofits and ultimately sent to a political committee fighting Amendment 3, a proposal to legalize marijuana.
The report did not find enough evidence to bring criminal charges for anyone involved, which includes some of the highest echelons of Florida’s political system: a current U.S. senator, the attorney general, DeSantis’ chief of staff, and an appellate judge. Those officials moved into these elevated positions in the months following the Herald/Times’ reporting on the scandal engulfing the embattled charity. The DeSantis administration, meanwhile, has bitterly rebuked all accusations of wrongdoing, maintaining that the investigation has been politically motivated and a “debunked hoax.”
They’ve maintained that the $10 million gifted to Hope Florida by Medicaid contractor Centene as part of a $67 million legal settlement was a “bonus,” not Medicaid dollars — despite the grand jury report finding that all of the money belonged to taxpayers. Although Gov. Ron DeSantis, at an unrelated news event in Lake City, agreed with Uthmeier that leaking the report was the only crime committed in the Hope Florida saga, he took the most offense to the media tying the scandal to his wife, Casey DeSantis.
Florida’s first lady for years was the face of the organization, touting it as one of her key initiatives. Gov. DeSantis on Thursday demanded the press take down articles and images using her picture, accusing the press of “smearing ... good people.” “I think the people that were behind the smear, in the political arena, were disgraceful,” he said. “We’ve got cancer in the Legislature — some of these people are bad actors.”
The charity was created to connect needy families to churches and other community groups to help move them off of government assistance. Since the grand jury report was issued in January, Casey DeSantis has not promoted Hope Florida. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 2:24 PM.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article317033347.html#storylink=cpy
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miami herald
...“That’s foundational to our democracy.” He said DeSantis would keep campaigning. Six days later, DeSantis dropped out and endorsed Trump. The seeds of a scandal Uthmeier stood beside his wife, Jean, and their three young kids last February as DeSantis spoke glowingly of his tirelessness. “James was a bulldog in our administration,” DeSantis said. The governor mentioned Uthmeier’s role in defeating a pair of constitutional amendments — one that would have codified the right to abortion, another that would have legalized recreational marijuana. When voters rejected the amendments in 2024, it was seen as a win for DeSantis.
:{:{“We would not have succeeded in that fight if it wasn’t for James’ leadership,” DeSantis said. Almost as soon as Uthmeier took office, the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives began investigating the circumstances of how that fight was won. The probe focused on $10 million in Medicaid funds that were given to the Hope Florida Foundation, a state-created charity, as part of a $67 million legal settlement with the state.}:
The Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald’s joint Tallahassee bureau uncovered how the foundation, which supports the Hope Florida program championed by first lady Casey DeSantis, quickly gave out the $10 million to two nonprofits, who then sent most of the money to a political committee that aimed to defeat the marijuana amendment. The committee was controlledby Uthmeier. Last April, as the Herald/Times began publishing a series of stories about the spending, Uthmeier held a news conference in Tampa. He wanted to talk about a lawsuit his office brought against Snapchat over the social media app’s use by minors.}:
Reporters wanted to ask him about the burgeoning scandal. He tried to distance himself from the controversy while insisting there was nothing illegal about what occurred. As the inquiries kept coming, Uthmeier raised his voice. “Anybody have a question about protecting our kids?” he said. “I’m kind of tired of these politicized narratives.” In another news conference a month later, Uthmeier kept talking. He blamed the scandal on his political opponents, who he said were in bed with the marijuana industry. “We did the right thing,” he said. ”Everything we did was lawful. We won. I’m proud we won, and I’m glad that we have kept Florida safe, free and open for business in a healthy manner.”
On a conservative podcast days later, he asserted he had to do what he did to defeat the marijuana amendment. “Government officials certainly have a right, maybe even a duty, to protect the state against things like this that will change our laws and potentially harm us,” he said. Alex Andrade, the Republican Pensacola representative who led the House investigation into the spending, has accused Uthmeier of fraud and money laundering. “He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would put his name on the ballot if he wasn’t handed the job first,” Andrade told the Times. “He’s like an ‘ends justify the means’ guy,” he said. “You can’t be an ‘ends justify the means’ guy and be in a position like the attorney general.” This week came new criticism after the Herald/Times revealed Uthmeier had secured a $100,000 salary for a two-hour-a-week teaching gig at UF’s law school, vastly more than an adjunct professor typically makes.
While such controversies may have sunk a politician of yesteryear, Uthmeier hasn’t shown any significant dip in support. A year after he formally launched a bid to get elected to the office he already holds, he has amassed close to $5 million in contributions to his campaign and an affiliated political committee. His most sizable backing came from the state Republican Party, which has given him close to $1 million. His second biggest contribution — $325,000 — came from an organization called First Principles. The Nashville-based super PAC has been linked in media reports to Leonard Leo, the conservative legal activist credited with helping to shift the U.S. Supreme Court to the right.
:{Uthmeier’s other heavyweight contributors include William James Mateer, a hospitality executive whose father was a top DeSantis donor.:{ He also took in $270,000 from CDR Enterprises, a Miami-based engineering corporation that was one of several companies contracted to build Alligator Alcatraz,}: according to campaign finance records and news reports. The company’s married chief executives, Carlos Duart and Tina Vidal-Duart, are close with DeSantis. She was on the Hope Florida Foundation board but left amid the growing scandal. ....