Florida GOP sues Democrats, TV stations to stop advertising citing Hope Florida grand jury report

The Republican Party of Florida filed a lawsuit Friday against the Democratic Party of Florida, several of its candidates and a slew of television stations, seeking to block the airing of a political ad highlighting the leaked grand jury presentation in the Hope Florida scandal.

According to the complaint filed with the 10th Judicial Circuit in Highlands County, because the 1st District Court of Appeal expunged the grand jury’s presentment in its Oct. 7 opinion, state law prohibits the release of the substance of the report.

State law “prohibits any person from knowingly disseminating the content, substance or import of the testimony of a witness examined before a grand jury. Advertising does just that,” the lawsuit says. “It tells viewers that ‘a leaked grand jury report found’ that ‘$10 million was embezzled’ – a conclusion the First District held was incorrect in law, based on a document that no longer legally exists.”

What advertising is targeted in the lawsuit and how the Democratic candidates are responding

The FDP paid for the 30-second ad on behalf of former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, Democratic candidate for governor, Jose Javier Rodriguez, Democratic candidate for attorney general, and Annette Taddeo, Democratic candidate for chief financial officer. The lawsuit names the three defendants, as well as 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 will face outgoing CFO Blaise Ingoglia, former RPOF president, in the general election, criticized the trial.

“The Republican Party of Florida, which Ingoglia chaired, sued to remove an ad before anyone could respond, and is threatening to sue TV stations for airing it,” Taddeo said in a released statement. “This should outrage all Floridians. When corruption reaches the highest levels of state government, the answer is more transparency and accountability, not lawsuits and silence 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 finds that $10 million was embezzled from a 2024 Medicaid settlement as part of a scheme to funnel funds to a political committee controlled by James Uthmeier, then-chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis. Later, DeSantis appointed him attorney general. Uthmeier used the funds to oppose two ballot measures that year that would have legalized recreational marijuana and enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution. Both measures failed to gain the necessary 60 percent adoption.

House Republicans investigated the matter and found lax procedures at the Hope Florida Foundation, the charitable arm of an initiative launched by First Lady Casey DeSantis. The nonprofit received $10 million as part of a $67 million settlement the state reached with Centene, a Medicaid provider, to resolve overpayments made by the company.

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’s Attorney Jack Campbell, acting on information provided to him by the House committee that conducted the investigation, impaneled a grand jury. Although the report found that the money had been “misappropriated,” it did not find enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime.

THE decision of the court of appealhowever, found that the grand jury was wrong to reach that conclusion, saying the Medicaid settlement did not actually involve state money because the funds never reached the state’s coffers as they were funneled to the Hope Florida Foundation instead of the state.

The report was completed in January but remained secret until it was leaked.