Florida Senator Ashley Moody faces renewed scrutiny over her role in Hope Florida scandal

Ashley Moody has been in the United States Senate for 18 months, yet she remains a bit of an enigma. She doesn't do many interviews outside of the safe confines of conservative media, like Fox News. She keeps a low profile on most issues, and even during her years as Florida's Attorney General, she seemed most comfortable standing in the background at press conferences, letting others do the talking.

That strategy has been successful. She won two statewide elections in 2018 and 2022, and it was her quiet fealty to Ron DeSantis that led to his decision in January 2025 to appoint her to the Senate to replace Marco Rubio.

DeSantis cited several reasons for appointing Moody, arguing that she would be tough on immigration and a true law-and-order stalwart. But he also added one other. 

"She was also a staunch opponent and helped us defeat Amendments 3 and 4 in the most recent November election," DeSantis said.

Amendment 3 was the 2024 constitutional amendment that would have restored abortion rights in Florida, and Amendment 4 was the measure to legalize marijuana in the state.

How exactly did Moody help?

Well, that takes us back to the Hope Florida scandal.

As Florida Attorney General, it was Moody and her office that approved diverting $10 million in taxpayer money to the Hope Florida Foundation. And the Attorney General did so without putting in place any of the safeguards or guardrails her office would typically require to ensure the money was properly spent.

These funds were intended to expand Medicaid for children in Florida, but instead it ended up in the bank accounts of a pair of political action committees, one of which was controlled by the Governor and his chief of staff, James Uthmeier.

And that was the money that DeSantis used to defeat Amendment 4.

Amendment 4 garnered 57% of the vote in November 2024, just shy of the 60 % needed to pass. And two months after the amendment failed, DeSantis appointed Moody to the United States Senate, and he appointed Uthmeier to replace Moody as Attorney General.

The diversion of $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation and then to the political action committees fighting Amendment 4 was uncovered during a series of legislative hearings in 2025 in the Florida House. And it prompted one Republican legislator to call it a criminal act.

"This is a misuse of Medicaid money," Republican State Rep. Alex Andrade told CBS Miami in August 2025. "This is money laundering."

Following the revelations, the state attorney in Leon County opened a grand jury investigation. No charges were brought as a result of the probe, but sources familiar with the case say the grand jury issued a report detailing its findings and concerns. The report is likely highly critical and embarrassing to those involved. Under state law, it was supposed to be released within 15 days of the grand jury issuing it, unless someone named in the report objects and asks for it to be suppressed or for portions to be redacted.

The fate of the grand jury report is believed to be tied up in secret court proceedings. The Florida Center for Government Accountability has asked to intervene in the case to gain access to the report, or at the very least to argue, on behalf of the public, why the report should be released.

Uthmeier has been asked about Hope Florida several times, and he refuses to say if he is the one blocking the release of the grand jury report.

"I don't think anybody cares about this topic any more than the liberal media," he said in April. "Again, there was a grand jury proceeding under Florida law. The contents thereof are confidential. That's not my choice. That is Florida law. What I can tell you is I have not been indicted. I've not been a suspect or a target. I have not been involved in any criminal activity. Nobody did anything wrong here."

He called the entire affair a nothing burger.

But he is not the only candidate on the ballot this November who is refusing to provide answers about Hope Florida. The one person who has escaped any real scrutiny about their role in the scandal has been Ashley Moody.

CBS Miami tried to interview Moody at a Republican Party event last month, but she said she didn't have time and asked that we schedule something with her staff. A subsequent request for an interview went unanswered by her staff. Three weeks ago, CBS Miami sent her office and her campaign a series of questions about Hope Florida – and again, there was no response.

Among the questions CBS Miami sought answers to:

• When her office approved the diversion of the $10 million, did Moody know the money was going to be used for political purposes? Did she ever talk to the Governor or anyone on his team about it?
• Does she think it was appropriate for money intended to expand Medicaid for children to end up in a political campaign instead? In other words, does she agree with Uthmeier that this is all a big nothing burger?
• CBS Miami also asked whether she had filed an objection to the release of the grand jury report and whether she wanted it made public.

Again, no response.

While Moody has remained silent on Hope Florida, the state's other senator has made his views known. Last year on social media, Rick Scott posted a story about Andrade's hearings and added this comment: "Millions in tax dollars for poor kids have no business funding political ads."

But the public has heard nothing from Moody.

And yet, as she runs for election to the Senate this November, it is hard to imagine she can continue to avoid questions about Hope Florida. Because when you look at the facts, Moody's office was deeply involved in diverting that $10 million.

On Sunday, during an episode of Facing South Florida, Andrade said he tried to interview Moody during his investigation of Hope Florida, but she never responded.

"First, I have nothing but respect for Senator Moody, but the Attorney General's office was a signatory to the settlement agreement with Centene that led to this money going to the Hope Florida Foundation," he said, noting why he believed it was important. "But, you know, at the same time, she's not obligated to speak with me. And I have a funny feeling that US senators are busy. But yeah, I attempted last year, when all of this was happening, to try and talk with her about it, but wasn't able to connect with her on it."

"Senator Moody has never commented on it, so it's unclear what she knew, what she was told, why there weren't more controls, more questions being asked by the attorney general's office [about the diversion]," he added. "The only person, other than John Guard, who can answer those questions, I believe, would be Senator Moody."

John Guard was the chief deputy attorney general under Moody. Ironically, it was the Hope Florida scandal that derailed Guard's appointment to the federal bench. Guard had been selected by President Trump in 2025 for a federal court seat, but according to Axios, his nomination was held up because Rick Scott insisted he needed to answer questions about Hope Florida. (According to Axios, this move by Scott so enraged Moody that she threatened to block his judicial appointments, in a tit-for-tat measure.)

Ultimately, Guard withdrew his name from consideration for the federal bench, and in January, Governor DeSantis appointed Him to the state's Second District Court of Appeals.

The history of the settlement 

This entire affair started in 2020, when a law firm in Alabama, Liston and Deas, discovered that the giant healthcare company Centene was overbilling states for prescription drugs under Medicaid. The law firm began contacting the Attorneys General's offices across the country, informing them they were likely due a refund. To date, the law firm has represented 20 states and negotiated settlements totaling nearly a billion dollars.

At the time, Liston and Deas calculated Florida's portion of the settlement was $67 million. The attorneys even drew up a draft settlement agreement documenting the $67 million and calling for its return to the state.

But in 2022, for reasons that remain unclear, Moody, as Florida's Attorney General, fired the law firm and said the state would represent itself.

A review of records by the Miami Herald, the Tampa Bay Times, and other reporters revealed that between 2022 and 2024, the state of Florida did nothing to recover the money Centene owed the state. In fact, it appeared Centene was eager to resolve the matter and put the issue behind them. During that same period, twenty states settled with Centene, including Ohio, Indiana, and Arkansas.

But after years of inaction, in September 2024, Florida suddenly expressed interest in obtaining the funds from Centene. However, the state wanted one change to the settlement that Liston and Deas had previously negotiated.

Instead of $67 million being returned, Florida said it wanted only $62 million returned to the state, with $5 million being sent to an entity Centene knew nothing about, the Hope Florida Foundation.

A week later, a new draft was created, this time changing the amounts yet again. Now, Florida wanted only $57 million returned to the state, and it wanted the share sent to Hope Florida to be doubled to $10 million.

Emails obtained by the Herald and the Tampa Bay Times show that Centene's lawyers were nervous about this sudden change, especially because it diverted money to a charity aligned with the Governor's wife, Casey DeSantis.

From the outside, the entire affair looked suspicious, and Centene demanded that, to protect itself, the Attorney General be included in the settlement. Emails show that throughout September 2024, Centene's lawyers kept inserting the Florida Attorney General into settlement drafts, and John Guard, Moody's chief deputy, kept removing the references.

Emails also showed that Guard was reviewing the settlements with Moody.

The extended discussions over the wording of the settlement, however, delayed transferring the money into the Hope Florida account. And the timing was critical. These abrupt negotiations were occurring less than six weeks before the November 2024 election on the marijuana amendment. Polls showed the vote on the amendment could go either way, and securing that $10 million would be critical to DeSantis's push to defeat it.

Ultimately, Guard relented and signed the settlement on behalf of Moody, thereby allowing the $10 million to go to the Hope Florida Foundation. And within days, the entire $10 million was then transferred out of the foundation and into the campaigns against Amendment 4.

Andrade said what surprised him most was that the Attorney General's office routinely provides guidance on matters like this to other groups, yet in this case, they seemed to have ignored the advice they would have given.

"What you see throughout decades of Attorney General opinions is the constant requirement that there be some type of control, some type of mechanism to make sure that funds, taxpayer funds, are actually being used for a public purpose," he told CBS Miami. "I don't think that the Attorney General's office, if another government entity had simply come to them, they would have advised them to structure this settlement without those protections. So, it is a bit of a head-scratcher; it's a bit confusing."

Asked what questions he would have wanted to ask Ashley Moody if he had been able to question her, Andrade rattled off several, including, "What assurances from the Governor's office or from [the Agency for Health Care Administration] did you receive that the money was actually going to be used for a Medicaid purpose? What plans were in place from AHCA to actually pay back the federal share of every Medicaid dollar that Hope Florida was receiving? What compliance had the Hope Florida Foundation engaged in?"

Andrade noted that under state law, the Attorney General's Office enforces requirements that groups that receive $750,000 in state funds must complete audits, "and have a contract in place and be subject to oversight from a grant administrator from a state agency."

"None of those controls that we have in every other transaction that's similar to this were put in place or required or verified," Andrade said. "I mean, there's no contract between AHCA and the Hope Florida Foundation for the Hope Florida Foundation to do anything in expanding Medicaid. The Hope Florida Foundation couldn't even comply with their IRS requirements as a 501C3, let alone their state audit requirements."

"So, yeah, I'd want to know what assurances they got that gave them the comfort to not put those controls [in the settlement] or follow up on what controls were in place, because there was obviously a trusting relationship between the governor's office and the attorney general's office," Andrade said. "I have to assume assurances were given, but I don't know."

And until Ashley Moody is willing to answer questions about this, the public won't know either.