An appeals court expunges the Hope Florida grand jury report
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 1st 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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