The image is from a political ad funded by the Florida Democratic Party. The state GOP’s lawsuit sought to block broadcasters from airing the ad.
The Florida Republican Party has voluntarily dropped a lawsuit against the Florida Democratic Party and 11 television stations that sought to block the airing of a political ad alleging ‘misappropriation’ of millions of dollars in state funds.
The Florida GOP filed its notice of voluntary dismissal on Oct. 21 in the 10th Judicial Circuit Court in Highlands County. In a press release, the party said Florida Democrats are no longer running the ad, making the lawsuit moot.
The Florida GOP had asked the court for a temporary restraining order and an injunction to prevent the defendants from airing the ad. The state’s First District Court of Appeal earlier this month ordered the Leon County grand jury report “expunged in full,” finding that the grand jury had exceeded its authority and that the disclosure of the report to a Miami media outlet was a violation of Florida law.
The leaked 116-page report examines a $67 million legal settlement by the Centene Corp. in the wake of allegations that the managed-care company overcharged Florida’s Medicaid program for services. The state received $57 million from the settlement, and the Hope Florida Foundation, a nonprofit charity founded by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife, Casey, received $10 million.
About $8.5 million of the $10 million eventually ended up in the hands of a political committee controlled by the governor’s former chief of staff, James Uthmeier, who was later appointed attorney general. The grand jury report alleged the existence of a scheme to misappropriate funds for political activities but acknowledged there was insufficient evidence to file any criminal charges.
In a press release, the Florida Democratic Party said the state GOP sought an order to block the airing of the ad before Democrats could even respond to the legal complaint. A circuit judge denied the request.
“Republicans raced to court in the middle of the night to silence us, threatened TV stations and tried to scare Floridians out of talking about Hope Florida,” the party’s chair, Nikki Fried, said in a statement. “After a judge denied their emergency request to pull our ad, they walked away from their own case. Their stunt backfired.”
The state GOP’s lawsuit was one in a series of efforts designed to keep the Hope Florida incident out of the public eye, according to the state Democratic Party. More than $327,000 in taxpayer-funded legal fees were paid out during legal battles in the wake of the leaking of the grand jury report, the party reported.
In its voluntary dismissal notice, the state GOP said the point of its lawsuit was to hold the defendants accountable because repeating the substance of such a grand jury report is unlawful.
“Since (the state GOP) filed its lawsuit, multiple state attorneys have weighed in as well,” the notice states. “Our lawsuit has thus had the desired effect.”
The party is dropping the litigation so that the investigative work of the state attorneys can move forward “without distractions,” the notice says.
Free speech advocates have criticized the state GOP’s actions.
“This lawsuit is an attempt to ride roughshod over the First Amendment by trying to bully broadcasters into silence,” Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, said in a statement. “The First District Court of Appeal ordered the report expunged, but it did not order the media to stop reporting on information already made public. Expungement does not erase the First Amendment protections.”
