Florida GOP sues Democrats, TV stations to stop ad citing Hope Florida grand jury report
The Republican Party of Florida filed suit on Friday against the Florida Democratic Party, many of its candidates, and a slew of television stations, seeking to stop the airing of a political ad that highlights the leaked grand jury presentment in the Hope Florida scandal.
According to the complaint filed in the 10th Judicial Circuit in Highlands County, because the 1st District Court of Appeal expunged the grand jury presentment in its Oct. 7 opinion, state law prohibits the publication of the substance of the report.
State statutes "make it unlawful for any person to knowingly broadcast the content, gist, or import of testimony of a witness examined before a grand jury. The advertisement does exactly that," the lawsuit states. "It tells viewers that 'a leaked grand jury report found' that '$10 million was misappropriated' – a conclusion the First District held was wrong as a matter of law, based on a document that no longer lawfully exists."
What ad is being targeted in the lawsuit and how Democratic candidates are reacting
The FDP paid for the 30-second ad on behalf of former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Jose Javier Rodriguez, the Democratic attorney general nominee, and Annette Taddeo, the Democratic chief financial officer nominee. The lawsuit names all three as defendants, along with WFTV, Hearts Properties, Graham Media Group Orlando, Fox Television Stations, New World Communications of Tampa, Nexstar Media, Tegna East Coast Broadcasting, Scripps Broadcasting Holdings, and Ion Media License Company.
Taddeo, who faces incumbent CFO Blaise Ingoglia, the former Chairman of the RPOF, in the general election, slammed the lawsuit.
"The Republican Party of Florida, which Ingoglia used to chair, has gone to court to pull an ad off the air before anyone can respond, and is threatening to prosecute TV stations for airing it," Taddeo said in a released statement. "That should outrage every Floridian. When corruption reaches the highest levels of state government, the answer is more transparency and accountability, not lawsuits and gag orders."
What the grand jury report mentioned in the ads found
The grand jury report has been widely covered by numerous media outlets since August, when CBS News Miami first obtained and published it.
The report found that $10 million was diverted from a 2024 Medicaid settlement as part of a scheme to funnel the funds into a political committee controlled by James Uthmeier, then the chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis. Later, DeSantis appointed him as attorney general. Uthmeier used the funds to oppose two measures on the ballot that year that would've legalized recreational marijuana and installed a right to an abortion in the state constitution. Both measures failed to get the 60 percent needed to pass.
House Republicans probed the matter, finding lax procedures at the Hope Florida Foundation, the charity arm of an initiative started by First Lady Casey DeSantis. The nonprofit received $10 million from a $67 million deal the state sealed with Centene, a Medicaid provider, to resolve overpayments the company made.
The Hope Florida Foundation then gave the money to two other nonprofits, which in turn gave the money to Uthmeier's committee.
Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell, acting on information turned in to him by the House panel that conducted the probe, started a grand jury. Although the report found money was "misappropriated," it didn't find enough evidence to indict anyone for a crime.
The appellate court ruling, however, found that the grand jury was wrong to make that finding, asserting that the Medicaid settlement didn't actually involve state money because the funds never reached state coffers, as they were routed to the Hope Florida Foundation instead of the state.
The report was finished in January but kept secret until it was leaked.