By J.C. Bruce
Aside from our lame-duck governor, Ron DeSantis, two culprits stand out in the Hope Florida scandal who seem to have, so far at least, avoided the long arm of the law.
They are Attorney General James Uthmeier and U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody. Their fingerprints are all over how the $10 million in Medicaid refunds were “misappropriated”—in a grand jury’s terms.
They weren’t indicted. Nobody was. The grand jury couldn’t figure out who to accuse due to a heretofore underreported case of mass amnesia in Tallahassee.
It should be underscored that neither Uthmeier nor Moody has been elected to the positions they now hold and hope to win in the midterm election. They were given those jobs by DeSantis in a round-robin series of payoffs for their loyalty.
Uthmeier had been serving as DeSantis’ chief of staff when he was appointed to take Moody’s place as attorney general. Moody’s post was vacant because DeSantis had appointed her to fill Marco Rubio’s seat in the U.S. Senate when Donald Trump named him his Secretary of State.
Everybody got promoted. All after each had played their part in funneling those millions into a charity run by DeSantis’ wife, Casey—Hope Florida—and then quickly diverted through a series of moves orchestrated by Uthmeier and others into, among other things, campaign ads opposing a pair of ballot initiatives that the voters of Florida had said they wanted to decide upon: legalization of marijuana and supporting women’s reproductive rights.
DeSantis didn’t like either of those ideas. No matter what the citizens of Florida thought, he knew better. And while a majority of voters said “yes” to both measures, Florida law requires a 60 percent approval threshold for ballot initiatives to pass, and they fell just short. Those ads, paid for with “misappropriated” funds, may have made the difference.
Said simply, DeSantis and his flunkies took money that didn’t belong to them and rerouted it to defeat a pair of ballot measures that a majority of Floridians wanted. That money should have gone to help poor people. DeSantis didn’t care about that.
Now both Uthmeier and Moody have inherited the stink of this scandal as they face the final few weeks before Election Day.
And it has only come to light because of the tireless work of journalists in the state who refused to let the grand jury’s report remain hidden.
The Democratic caucus in the State Legislature, among others, has condemned this.
“The grand jury report in the Hope Florida case is truly damning. The supposed public servants involved were clearly preoccupied with their own political agenda instead of the people of Florida, and in what seems to be a reward for their misdeeds, two of them were appointed to higher office. This behavior is outrageous, immoral, and in our view, criminal.”
Uthmeier’s opponent, former State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, has also called him a criminal. State Rep. Angie Nixon, running against Moody, has said she will file complaints against them with the Florida Bar. And David Jolly, the Democratic nominee to replace DeSantis, has called for a new investigation.
Uthmeier and Moody may have avoided prosecution for this odious mess—so far, at least—but they still face judgment day at the ballot box come Nov. 3.
With all that in mind, earlier today I emailed you two articles that should by now be in your inbox.
One is from Florida investigative journalist Jason Garcia, who does an admirable job of fleshing out all the details I’ve just skimmed over here, including naming other public officials who were involved and ultimately got better jobs as a reward. I urge you to take a look at it because the more you read, the more details you absorb, the more you will realize the depth of this betrayal of public trust.
Also in your inbox is a guest commentary from a State Senate candidate, David Silverberg, who is running as a Democrat in a heavily Republican district in southwest Florida.
He’s proposed legislation to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, and in his article you can get further details on all this. He may not be on the ballot where you live, but other Democrats are, and they need to follow suit and deserve your support.
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
Here are the links to both of those articles, which you can also find posted on the Tropic Press Website:
Jason Garcia: Conflicting testimony and foggy memories: How the Hope Florida grand jury found wrongdoing but no wrongdoers
David Silverberg: Why it’s more important than ever to introduce the ‘New Hope for Florida Act’
Related:
Hope Florida scandal gives Dems ammo to use against GOP rivals in midterm election
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J.C. Bruce
Republicans have sunk a long way in my lifetime, to now being an autocratic, theocratic kleptocracy that no longer serves the people. Old school R's disgusted with this fact need to join Dems and Independents to correct this mess by voting against ALL R's.
I have been following this Hope scandal for over a year. I live in the Tampa area and the St Pete Times Newspaper has headlined it a couple of times it. I give the Times a lot of credit for not letting this be swept under the rug!