Court orders Hope Florida grand jury report expunged, says settlement arrangement was legal

A state appellate court on Wednesday ordered that a grand jury report alleging that $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was "misappropriated" be expunged.

The grand jury report, though, has already been leaked and extensively reported in the press, first obtained and published by CBS News Miami.

The 19-page ruling from the 1st District Court of Appeal was critical of the report and of its leak to the press. Under state law, grand jury reports that don't lead to indictments are supposed to be sealed until those named in the report are given a copy and the opportunity to suppress and expunge the record.

Despite finding that funds from the settlement, which were funneled to a political committee opposing measures on the 2024 ballot, were misappropriated, the report didn't indict anyone, citing insufficient evidence.

But the ruling Wednesday asserted the settlement arrangement, in which Medicaid provider Centene gave $57 million to the state and $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation, was legal. The settlement resolved alleged overpayments made to Centene. The Hope Florida Foundation gave $10 million to two nonprofit groups, which in turn donated it to a political committee headed by James Uthmeier.

At the time, Uthmeier was Gov. Ron DeSantis' chief of staff and has since been appointed attorney general. The political committee opposed measures that would have legalized recreational marijuana and established a right to an abortion in the state constitution. Both measures failed to get the 60 percent needed to pass that year.

The grand jury report found the money was misappropriated because state law bars executive agencies from entering into settlements that pay out third parties. But the appellate ruling states that because no "civil action" had been filed in court, the law doesn't apply to the settlement. And because the $10 million was paid directly to Hope Florida, not to the state, the money wasn't "diverted," as the grand jury report indicated.

"This matter settled before any civil action was filed. Because no 'civil action' had been commenced in court … no 'court settlement' had been reached," the ruling states.

The ruling also criticizes State Attorney Jack Campbell, who oversaw the grand jury proceedings, for distributing the final report to unauthorized people in January.

"The State Attorney's error was not a failure to notify those individuals," the ruling states. "It was an overbroad handling of a confidential document that breached the statute's confidentiality requirement before the impugned individuals could be heard. The violation lies in the disclosure itself."

The ruling was written by Judge Lance Neff, who was appointed to the court by DeSantis in March, two months after the grand jury report was finalized.

State law also requires executive agencies to notify the Legislature when settlement negotiations begin, but lawmakers weren't told of the Centene settlement and the Hope Florida provision until it was reported in the press.

The ruling doesn't mention Uthmeier's role in the settlement or in how the money was eventually used. But aides for DeSantis and Uthmeier declared "victory" over the "hoax."

"COMPLETE AND TOTAL VICTORY! The Hope Florida Hoax grand jury presentment was completely expunged by Florida's 1st DCA," Jeremy Redfern, Uthmeier's deputy chief of staff, posted on X.

The state House investigated the settlement in 2025, with a panel chaired by Rep. Alex Andrade uncovering lax processes at the Hope Florida Foundation, which approved the transfer of money to the nonprofit groups. It was Andrade's probe that led to the Leon County grand jury investigation.

Andrade declined to comment on the appellate ruling.