Florida appeals court orders Hope Florida grand jury report expunged, rejects key findings

A Florida appeals court has ordered the entire grand jury report investigating the Hope Florida Foundation to be expunged, ruling that the grand jury overstepped its authority by accusing people of wrongdoing without indicting them.

In a 19-page opinion, the First District Court of Appeal reversed a lower court's decision that had allowed portions of the report to remain. The appeals court said a grand jury may investigate and report its findings, but it cannot declare conduct unlawful and then decline to bring charges or condemn people by name without indicting them. The grand jury had acknowledged there was insufficient evidence to criminally charge anyone.

"It brands the named participants as members of a `sophisticated scheme' to misappropriate taxpayer funds, finds officials not credible or derelict in conducting due diligence, and identifies individuals as illicitly directing the funds, all while conceding the grand jury lacked evidence to criminally charge anyone," the court wrote. "Having declined to indict, the grand jury retained no jurisdiction to publish individualized findings of criminal-like culpability.

The investigation centered on $10 million connected to a $67 million settlement with Centene Corporation over allegations the company overcharged Florida's Medicaid program. Centene paid $57 million to the state and made a separate $10 million payment to the Hope Florida Foundation. The foundation later approved two $5 million grants to nonprofit organizations that donated money to a political committee opposing Florida's 2024 recreational marijuana amendment.

The grand jury concluded that the $10 million had been "misappropriated" as part of a "sophisticated scheme" to fund political activities. But the appeals court rejected that legal conclusion, finding the money went directly from Centene to Hope Florida and was never received or spent by the state. The court said the laws cited by the grand jury did not apply to the payment and noted that the Legislature had not made such third-party settlement payments illegal.

"The $10 million provided to Hope Florida in the Centene settlement was never public money," the court found. "The money neither reimbursed the State for losses from Centene's overcharges nor ever became the property of the State of Florida, as the transfer of the funds was directly from Centene to Hope Florida. While some may question the propriety of settlements with payments to third parties, the Florida Legislature has not made such action illegal, as the grand jury's recommendations implicitly acknowledge."

The court was particularly strident against Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell, mocking the grand jury report by noting: "It is careless in its grammar, mistaken in its law, and unfaithful to its own record."

DeSantis calls Hope Florida ruling a "judicial beat down"

Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the ruling in a social media post Wednesday night, calling the grand jury investigation a "hoax" and saying the court's decision amounted to a "judicial beat down." 

DeSantis said the ruling showed there was no misappropriation by the Agency for Health Care Administration as a matter of law and described the decision as "the judicial equivalent of a death-by-firing squad to the Hope Florida Hoax."

CBS News Miami exclusively obtained a copy of the grand jury report in August. 

At his press conference on Monday, DeSantis called for a criminal investigation into how the report was leaked.

The appeals court was highly critical of how the confidential report was handled before its release, finding that the State Attorney sent it to at least 49 recipients before the people criticized in it had been given the opportunity required under Florida law to seek to have it repressed or expunged. The court said that premature disclosure provided an independent reason to expunge the report.

The appeals court ruled that removing the remaining findings would leave little coherent substance and ordered the entire report expunged from court records. The court wrote that the grand jury could have reported on the conduct of public offices or recommended changes to state law, but instead "exceeded its authority by accusing people of criminal conduct without indicting them."