MEDIA ARTICLE: Court wipes out Hope Florida grand jury presentment that blasted DeSantis administration (Orlando Sentinel, 10-7-26)

 Court wipes out Hope Florida grand jury presentment that blasted DeSantis administration

An appellate court on Wednesday expunged a grand jury presentment blasting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration over the Hope Florida scandal. (Facebook: Gov. Ron DeSantis)

By Jeffrey Schweers | jschweers@orlandosentinel.com | Orlando Sentinel

PUBLISHED: October 7, 2026 at 6:11 PM EDT | UPDATED: October 8, 2026 at 12:25 PM EDT

TALLAHASSEE — In a surprising twist to a tortuous political controversy, a state appeals court has now expunged the confidential Hope Florida grand jury report leaked two months ago that accused key state officials of a “sophisticated scheme” to misappropriate $10 million in taxpayer dollars from a Medicaid settlement for political purposes.

The First District Court of Appeal issued a blistering takedown of the Leon County grand jury and State Attorney Jack Campbell, ruling Wednesday that the report, known as a “presentment,” exceeded the jury’s authority. It also said state law was violated when the presentment was disclosed.

The jury had criticized members of the DeSantis administration by name but declined to bring charges, saying no one interviewed would take responsibility for diverting the Medicaid money to help pay for a campaign against a statewide measure legalizing marijuana.

” A grand jury may investigate and report, but it may not declare conduct unlawful and then decline to charge it, and it may not condemn people by name without indicting them,” Appellate Judge Lance E. Neff wrote in the court’s opinion. “Nor may the State release a confidential presentment before those it impugns have had the opportunity Florida law guarantees to seek its repression or expungement.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Neff to the First DCA in March.

On Thursday morning, a jubilant DeSantis lavishly complimented Neff’s judicial acumen while insisting the court’s order validated his long-running contention that no wrongdoing occurred when the funds were diverted.

“There was an attempt to weaponize this using the legal system,” DeSantis said, referring to the Hope Florida grand jury investigation at a press conference in Miami. He called the court’s opinion “the biggest judicial smackdown that I have ever seen . . . All the narratives crash and burn.”

The court’s ruling gives DeSantis and other top GOP officials plenty of rhetorical power to dismiss a political corruption allegation that has been flogged in multiple campaigns this fall. But it leaves the Hope Florida scheme itself in an odd limbo, with Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell declaring earlier this week that she too intended to investigate the fund diversion, and suggesting the grand jury had not gone far enough.

The court’s opinion, however, said the opposite. It said the grand jury was wrong to have named those involved in the scheme, “yet returned no indictment, conceding it lacked sufficient evidence to charge anyone.” The DCA also said the $10 million was not actually public money because it was paid by a private company in a legal settlement, and that the jury failed to establish it was misappropriated.

The appeal was filed by Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was represented by Chris Kise, a former solicitor general of Florida who has also served as defense counsel for President Trump. Uthmeier, who was among those criticized in the presentment, appointed former First DCA Judge Brad Thomas as acting attorney general for these proceedings.

The court’s ruling reversed a Leon County Circuit Court ruling in July by Judge J. Lee Marsh denying full expungement.

Campbell said Wednesday he was “legally prohibited from discussing anything concerning the grand jury proceeding. The fact that others discuss it doesn’t change anything for me.”

Campbell convened the grand jury in August to begin investigating allegations of a conspiracy to commit fraud brought forward by state Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola. Andrade submitted information gathered during hearings he held during the 2025 legislative session on how $10 million of a $67 million Medicaid settlement agreement wound up being used to combat a citizen-driven ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

Instead of issuing a true bill or indictment, the grand jury in January issued a 116-page presentment consisting of a 19-page report and 97 pages of exhibits. The report summarized confidential witness testimony and evidence, concluding that the $10 million was “misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities.”

The presentment named high-ranking state officials, including Uthmeier, who was DeSantis’ chief of staff at the time of the settlement negotiations and directed the movement of the funds to two nonprofits that in turn donated most of the money to a political committee he ran, according to the grand jury report.

The presentment reported that Jason Weida, then secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration and the agency’s attorney Andrew Sheeran were involved in the negotiations that led to Hope Florida receiving $10 million of the settlement with the Centene Corp. for allegedly overbilling the state.

Weida and Sheeran were among those who obtained legal counsel to have the presentment expunged.

While the grand jury blasted the administration for a lack of transparency it found insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges, saying people couldn’t remember whose decision it was to give a portion of the settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation, or wouldn’t take responsibility for the actions.

Instead, the grand jury recommended legislative reforms.

The presentment was automatically made confidential for 15 days to give people named in the report a chance to seek to have their names removed or the document expunged from court records.

But after the grand jury issued its report, and while it remained confidential, Campbell sent it to at least 49 recipients in two mass emails. The first set went to those he believed were entitled to a copy under state law, the court said.

The second set of emails, sent with the circuit court’s permission, included two generic intake email addresses and a recipient mistakenly included who had nothing to do with the proceeding.

“Disclosures to persons the Presentment does not impugn, not the furnishing of copies to the individuals concerned, constitute the violation” of state law, the court said. It has not been revealed who actually leaked the presentment to CBS News Miami.

In February, motions were filed to repress and expunge the report. Around the same time, Marsh, the judge in the case, allowed the Florida Center for Government Accountability to intervene in any court action related to any motions to repress or expunge and ordered the state attorney to notify the organization of any appeal.

Marsh expunged the witness section with their names and titles, all 97 pages of exhibits and several findings, “but denied repression and expungement in full,” the DCA opinion said. His ruling and other court proceedings — which have never become public, a fact government watchdogs have challenged — “held that the redactions did not change the Presentment’s tenor and that the Presentment did not allege that any named individual committed a crime.”

Michael Barfield, executive director of the Florida Center For Government Accountabliity, said it was “disappointing that this was a one-sided appellate procedure.”

Despite an order from Marsh giving the center the right to intervene, the court never notified them of the motions to appeal, nor did the appellate court invite them to participate. “We had no opportunity to present our arguments on the issues,” he said.

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MEDIA ARTICLE: OPINION: Maxwell: Scandal-plagued Uthmeier has never been elected. He never should be. (Orlando Sentinel, 10-8-26)

 Maxwell: Scandal-plagued Uthmeier has never been elected. He never should be.

Florida’s unelected attorney general, Republican James Uthmeier (left), has been surrounded by scandal and controversy from the moment he was appointed to the job. Democrat José Javier Rodríguez offers a fresh start and impressive track record.

By Scott Maxwell | smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com | Orlando Sentinel

PUBLISHED: October 8, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT

One of the most important races in Florida this year is also one that’s being largely overlooked — for attorney general.

The office is critically important. It’s the only statewide election where voters get to choose a prosecutor, the person most responsible for protecting consumers and standing up to corruption.

Unfortunately, for the last two years, rather than just combating corruption and avoiding controversy, Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, has been up to his neck in both.

For starters, Uthmeier — a former chief of staff for Gov. Ron DeSantis who the governor appointed to the post — was a star player in the Hope Florida scandal.

A grand jury concluded that members of the DeSantis administration orchestrated a complex financial scheme that took public money — meant to help poor people access healthcare — and diverted it to political committees and campaign advertising.

The grand jury stopped short of demanding accountability for reasons the state attorney in Tallahassee has yet to explain. But the jury’s leaked report mentioned Uthmeier 18 times and concluded he helped orchestrate the scheme and was “in a position of authority” over others involved.

Yet when journalists began reporting on the grand jury report, Uthmeier talked about arresting them … for asking questions.

If you think that’s normal, you’ve been in Florida too long. Threatening journalists with arrest for asking questions is the kind of behavior you’d expect from third-world dictators, not an alleged public servant in America.

Yet that’s just the tip of the seedy iceberg.

The Republican Uthmeier has also been held in contempt of court by one judge for defying immigration orders and ordered by another judge to turn over cellphone records he was trying to hide about his role in the taxpayer-funded stunt to fly migrant workers from Texas to Martha’s vineyard.

He used his office to threaten Catholic bishops for promoting vaccine requirements in their private schools. To try to end surrogacy rights for families struggling to have children. And to attack private companies like Target for espousing messages of inclusion he dislikes.

He’s also the self-described “man behind Alligator Alcatraz,” a boondoggle of such financially epic proportions that the Trump administration shut it down after less than a year. (After a bunch of no-bid deals were exposed.)

I can’t recall covering any public official in Florida who demonstrated such blatant disregard for the law, the constitution and for your tax dollars in such a short time.

Fortunately, voters have the opportunity to get someone much better in this important office. His name is José Javier Rodríguez. And this isn’t a case where you simply have to vote for the lesser of two evils. Rodriguez is rock-solid.

The Democratic challenger is an attorney, former assistant U.S. Secretary of Labor and former Florida state senator. He’s the son of a Cuban refugee who graduated from Harvard law school and served in the Peace Corps.

Most importantly, while he was in public office, Rodriguez stood up to special interests — so much so that, after he did, those interests targeted him in Florida’s infamous “ghost candidate” scandal.

Uthmeier, on the other hand, has repeatedly done favors for campaign donors — everyone from developers to car dealers in a move meant bolster profits for dealers while hiking costs for consumers.

So Rodriguez wants to target corporations for fleecing consumers. Uthmeier wants to target them for promoting inclusion.

In recent weeks, with the election nigh, Uthmeier has toned down his culture-war attacks and talked more about taking on street criminals and Big Tech. But Rodriguez says his top three goals will be constant from day one: “Combat crime. Cut costs. End corruption.” Wouldn’t that be nice?

Honestly, I haven’t even scratched the surface of Uthmeier’s many controversies.

He also threatened to remove duly elected local officials from office for allegedly not following the law — yet announced he was refusing to enforce Florida statutes that deal with diversity.

He has also championed the blatantly unconstitutional and laughably un-American “Stop Woke” act that attempted to tell private companies what kind of values they can espouse. Even a Trump-appointed judge called that provision “a breathtaking assertion of power.”

There’s nothing patriotic about government trying to use its power to silence varied viewpoints. Nor is it constitutional, according to multiple conservative judges who actually believe in this nation’s founding principles.

There’s much more. But if you want one final example of how different these two candidates are, there’s another Uthmeier mess worth remembering — when he was caught pocketing $100,000 a year in a secretive, sweetheart deal for a part-time teaching gig at the University of Florida.

Most adjunct professors get paid a fraction of that. Some teach for free as a way to give back to students and the legal community. In fact, the Miami Herald determined Uthmeier was “the highest-paid adjunct professor at UF’s Levin College of Law in at least a quarter century.”

Yet when the deal was exposed, Uthmeier — who was already making $140,000 a year as A.G. — claimed he had to find a way “to keep the lights on and keep food on the table.” Poor, broke James.

Compare that to Rodriguez, who said he also “developed and taught an advanced course at UF Law as a volunteer adjunct … ” Yes, as a volunteer. I’m not sure you can find a clearer example of how very differently these two men view public service.

For the record, Uthmeier says he has done nothing wrong in any of the stories mentioned above. He describes himself as a fearless patriot and stresses quite correctly that the grand jury in the Hope Florida case didn’t bring forth any charges — though Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell recently announced she’s probing the scandal anew.

The electoral deck is certainly stacked in Uthmeier’s favor. Republicans have a massive edge in voter-registration. And he has a campaign war chest stocked with money from vested interests like those car dealers and attorneys whose firms make as much as $895 an hour working for the state and the office he controls.

In fact, if online bookies (who’ve also donated to Uthmeier’s campaign) were handicapping this race, he’d probably be a huge favorite, seeing as how Democrats haven’t unseated a GOP incumbent from statewide office in more than three decades.

But if conservatives and independents who claim to believe in the constitution and fiscal responsibility actually vote that way, that will finally change.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/08/florida-attorney-general-james-uthmeier-jose-javier-rodriguez/?clearUserState=true

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MEDIA ARTICLE: An appeals court expunges the Hope Florida grand jury report (WUSF, 10-8-26)

 

James Uthmeier

/

X

. The Hope Florida Foundation gave the $10 million to two nonprofit groups, which in turn donated the money to a political committee headed by James Uthmeier.

An appeals court expunges the Hope Florida grand jury report

WUSF | By Gray Rohrer - News Service of Florida

Published October 8, 2026 at 6:12 AM EDT

Despite the finding that the funds from the settlement were misappropriated, the report didn’t indict anyone, citing insufficient evidence.

A state appellate court on Wednesday ordered a grand jury report alleging $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was “misappropriated” to be expunged.

The grand jury report, though, has already been leaked and extensively reported on in the press.

The 19-page ruling from the 1^st District Court of Appeal was critical of the report and of its leak to the press. Under state law, grand jury reports that don’t lead to indictments are supposed to be sealed until those named in the report are given a copy and the opportunity to suppress and expunge the record.

Despite the finding that the funds from the settlement, which were funneled to a political committee that opposed measures on the 2024 ballot, were misappropriated, the report didn’t indict anyone, citing insufficient evidence.

But the ruling Wednesday asserted the settlement arrangement, in which Medicaid provider Centene gave $57 million to the state and $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation, was legal. The settlement resolved alleged overpayments made to Centene. The Hope Florida Foundation gave the $10 million to two nonprofit groups, which in turn donated the money to a political committee headed by James Uthmeier.

ALSO READ: IRS takes up whistleblower claim of Hope Florida money that flowed to Uthmeier's political committee

At the time, Uthmeier was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff and has since been appointed attorney general. The political committee opposed measures that would have 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 that year.

The grand jury report found the money was misappropriated because state law bars executive agencies from entering into settlements that pay out third parties. But the appellate ruling states that because no “civil action” had been filed in court, the law doesn’t apply to the settlement. And because the $10 million was paid directly to Hope Florida and not the state, the money wasn’t “diverted” as the grand jury report indicated.

“This matter settled before any civil action was filed. Because no ‘civil action’ had been commenced in court … no ‘court settlement’ had been reached,” the ruling states.

The ruling also criticizes State Attorney Jack Campbell, who oversaw the grand jury proceedings, for distributing the final report to unauthorized people in January.

ALSO READ: How Hope Florida quietly hollowed out the state's Medicaid, food safety net

“The State Attorney’s error was not a failure to notify those individuals,” the ruling states. “It was an over-broad handling of a confidential document that breached the statute’s confidentiality requirement before the impugned individuals could be heard. The violation lies in the disclosure itself.”

The ruling was written by Judge Lance Neff, who was appointed to the court by DeSantis in March, two months after the grand jury report was finalized.

State law also requires executive agencies to notify the Legislature when settlement negotiations begin, but lawmakers weren’t told of the Centene settlement and the Hope Florida provision until it was reported in the press.

The ruling doesn’t mention Uthmeier’s role in the settlement or in how the money was eventually used. But aides for DeSantis and Uthmeier declared “victory” over the “hoax.”

“COMPLETE AND TOTAL VICTORY! The Hope Florida Hoax grand jury presentment was completely expunged by Florida's 1st DCA,” Jeremy Redfern, Uthmeier’s deputy chief of staff, posted on X.

The state House investigated the settlement in 2025, with a panel chaired by Rep. Alex Andrade uncovering the lax processes at the Hope Florida Foundation, which approved sending the money to the nonprofit groups. It was Andrade’s probe that led to the Leon County grand jury investigation.

Andrade declined to comment on the appellate ruling.

https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2026-10-08/appeals-court-expunges-hope-florida-grand-jury-report

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MEDIA ARTICLE: Orange state attorney Worrell pursues criminal investigation of Hope Florida (Orlando Sentinel, 10-6-26)

 Orange state attorney Worrell pursues criminal investigation of Hope Florida

Twice-elected State Attorney Monique Worrell speaks during a press conference at her office, on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)

By Jeffrey Schweers | jschweers@orlandosentinel.com | Orlando Sentinel

PUBLISHED: October 6, 2026 at 3:37 PM EDT | UPDATED: October 6, 2026 at 4:04 PM EDT

Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell is actively pursuing her own criminal investigation of the Hope Florida scandal, after a Tallahassee-area grand jury found that $10 million of Medicaid settlement funds were improperly diverted for political purposes but stopped short of seeking charges.

Worrell said she decided to launch an independent review. She and her staff are examining documents and interviewing witnesses to find out whether misappropriated Medicaid funds were spent in Central Florida and if doing so constituted criminal activity. Worrell had said in late August she was “willing” to look into the issue, but revealed this week in an extensive interview with the Orlando Sentinel that her effort is well underway.

“As in any case, if I find criminal wrongdoing that I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, I will file charges,” Worrell said. “And if I cannot, I won’t.”

Worrell’s effort carries ample political intrigue, since she was once removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration created the Hope Florida anti-welfare program and related charity, and she remains a frequent target of state Attorney General James Uthmeier, who has been implicated in the scandal. Worrell said in August she has heard whispers she will be removed again.

In her interview with the Sentinel, Worrell said her investigation was prompted by news reports about the Leon County grand jury report, called a “presentment,” which found that funds from a legal settlement involving Medicaid contracting had been improperly routed through Hope Florida to political groups campaigning against the legalization of marijuana. But it concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to bring criminal charges against those involved because nobody claimed responsibility or could remember who decided to pursue the scheme.

“We have a leaked report that says funds were misappropriated, then we have a conclusion that no one would be prosecuted because no one would claim responsibility,” Worrell said. “My office prosecutes people every single day that don’t take responsibility.”

There could be a combination of potential wrongdoing, Worrell said, much of which took place in Tallahassee, which is beyond her jurisdiction.  But what gives her leverage is the purchase of ads that aired in Orange and Osceola counties. “It’s not just that money was misappropriated, but where that misappropriated money was spent,” she said.

The release of the grand jury report already sparked an outcry from both state legislative Democrats and Republicans and some Democratic members of Congress demanding a fresh investigation. And it’s become an issue in the state governor’s race, with Democrat David Jolly calling for a new inquiry while Republican Byron Donalds saying there is no need for further investigation.

The grand jury report concluded state officials under Uthmeier, who was then serving as chief of staff for DeSantis and was later appointed as attorney general, conducted a “sophisticated scheme to fund political activities”  to divert $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation from a $67 million settlement agreement meant to cover health care for poor children.

“Every top lawyer, virtually, in the state approved it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it,” Uthmeier said at a news conference on Monday in response to a reporter’s question. “It is entirely legal.”

Those lawyers include Uthmeier himself; former attorney general Ashley Moody, whom DeSantis appointed to the U.S. Senate last year to replace Marco Rubio; John Guard, her former deputy attorney general whom DeSantis appointed to the second district court of appeals; and Jason Weida, the former secretary for the Agency for Health Care Administration that runs the state Medicaid program, who is the current chief of staff to DeSantis.

DeSantis has also defended the $10 million transfer to Hope Florida’s charity arm. “It was legally sound, it was appropriate and it was consistent with the state’s mission,” DeSantis said at a news conference after the grand jury report came out.

The Hope Florida Foundation transfer was quickly distributed to two nonprofits that in turn donated millions to a campaign to defeat Amendment 3, a citizen-driven ballot initiative to legalize marijuana. The largest beneficiary of those donations was Keep Florida Clean, a political committee run by Uthmeier, who at the time was “in a position of authority over those involved” in negotiating the final Medicaid settlement agreement, the grand jury report said. And Moody ordered her deputy chief to sign the settlement agreement.

Uthmeier’s committee, doing business as “No On 3,” bought over $8 million in ads opposing the ballot initiative, according to AdImpact, a private company that tracks political spending. It is unclear how much of that money was spent in central Florida, but Worrell said she has proof.

“I know that there were political ads here in Central Florida and paid by the entities that received the money,” Worrell said. “That’s all I can say on the record right now. Anything else would be getting into the weeds of evidence if charges were to be filed.”

Another link to Central Florida is Jeff Aaron, a founding shareholder of an Orlando-based law firm who represented the Hope Florida Foundation, and was a Maitland resident. The foundation’s chair Joshua Hay testified that Aaron called him to tell him that the $10 million was coming along with a grant request for half of it from Secure Florida’s Future, a political committee chaired by Mark Wilson, the president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Secure Florida’s Future then gave $4.85 million to Keep Florida Clean.

The board approved the grant, and on Aaron’s advice, gave Hay the power to approve subsequent grants on his own.

Aaron also was put in touch with Amy Ronshausen of Save our Society from Drugs by Uthmeier, who told her Aaron “could assist her in the process,” the grand jury report said. She texted Aaron, asking who to send her request to and how much to request, and he gave her Wilson’s letter as a model for her request. She said Aaron also recommended she ask for $5 million.

A week later she emailed her application to Aaron, and heard back the same day that her request was approved. Within weeks, Save Our Society gave Keep Florida Clean $4.75 million.

Worrell and her law enforcement team have been reviewing information that has come out of the Leon County grand jury report, speaking to grand jury witnesses who have obtained information through their own public records requests, and looking at documents related to the investigation, she said.

“All of that will inform me how I move forward with my criminal investigation,” Worrell said.

She could also convene a grand jury of her own. “We do it in cases like this so we do not appear to be uninformed,” she said, though it isn’t required.

And in a public corruption case like this, Worrell said, “We want the community to inform us how to proceed.”

For Worrell, it’s a tricky balancing act. She wants to protect the identities of the people she is interviewing, who fear for their livelihoods given the DeSantis administration’s reputation for retaliating against those who oppose him.

But, she said, “These are people that recognize something very wrong happened… and want something done. And they want to see justice in this case.”

It may also be difficult to find a judge to issue warrants against a sitting governor, attorney general or senator, she added. Especially when Uthmeier and Moody are seeking election to the offices to which they were appointed by DeSantis.

“This whole situation is very unique and challenging because people are going to be afraid to participate in the prosecution of an administration that doesn’t play by the rules,” Worrell said. ”Which judge is going to issue a warrant? Which friend of DeSantis will give him a heads up that this is happening?”

And she is well aware that she is sticking her own neck on the chopping block. DeSantis had her removed from office in 2023 for alleged incompetence and neglect of duty. Worrell won back her office in 2024, defeating the man DeSantis appointed to replace her, former Orange County Judge Andrew Bain, 57-43 %.

“Will I be removed from office again before I can finish?” Worrell asked.  “At this point, a governor’s removal order could be seen as an obstruction of justice.”

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/06/orange-state-attorney-worrell-pursues-criminal-investigation-of-hope-florida/

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