David Jolly: First Lady Casey DeSantis, Hope Florida were ‘used’ in a ‘sinister plan’

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly ripped into Republicans again Friday over the grand jury report on Hope Florida.

But the candidate looking to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis did agree with the sitting governor on one part of the fallout. He agreed that First Lady Casey DeSantis — who briefly was seen a potential successor to her husband before the Hope Florida probe by the Florida House started making headlines — has been unfairly harmed by the backlash.

“This is money laundering,” he said of the episode during an afternoon press availability at the Florida Capitol.

“And look, I want to give grace to the first lady here. I think she was used,” Jolly continued. “I think Hope Florida was used. I think the governor’s right when he says it’s wrong to smear the first lady. I don’t think the first lady had anything to do with this.”

Jolly, who has committed to opening an investigation into the transfer of $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation if elected governor, called Republican opponent Byron Donalds a coward for not agreeing to do the same.

The Foundation is the non-profit direct service organization linked to the Hope Florida initiative. Championed by Ms. DeSantis, the project aims to reduce the number of people on Medicaid and families of that receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

CBS Miami obtained a copy of the Hope Florida grand jury report and earlier this week posted it to its website. The report found that top Republicans in DeSantis’ inner circle, including Attorney General James Uthmeier (who at the time was the governor’s chief of staff) diverted $10 million from a Medicaid settlement with Centene Corp. to the Hope Florida Foundation, which sent it to two non-profits that then sent money to a political action committee Uthmeier controlled to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana.  The amendment ultimately failed.

“The governor’s political operation clearly decided they needed $10 million to defeat a ballot initiative and they came up with a sinister plan that didn’t start until a few weeks before the ballot initiative was going to be presented to voters and they realized they needed additional investment to beat it back,” Jolly said.

The grand jury found the transfer violated Florida law but concluded that it would be difficult to make charges stick because “no witness would take responsibility for making the decision or had any memory of who made it.”

The grand jury report said U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, at the time the state attorney general, knew about the transfer and directed John Guard, her chief deputy attorney general at the time, to sign the agreement.

In addition to Uthmeier, Moody, and Guard, the grand jury report mentions former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida, who was the only one of the four to testify before the grand jury. 

DeSantis has promoted them all.

“It’s raw corruption, and so the reason I have suggested reopening the investigation or continuing the investigation is because I don’t think the facts were fully made available because the very people that were subject of the investigation were in a place to cover it up,” Jolly said.

If Democratic AG nominee Jose Javier Rodriguez defeats Uthmeier at the polls in November, Jolly said, he’s confident an investigation will result.

If Rodriguez doesn’t defeat Uthmeier, Jolly, also confident he’ll defeat Donalds, said he’ll use his executive power to launch an investigation.

“I think we should use the resources of the governor’s office for additional fact finding, or work with the Legislature, like someone like [Republican Sen.] Don Gaetz, to appoint a special counsel, an independent investigation. “

At a minimum, Jolly said, the Legislature should consider enacting two changes the grand jury recommended to prevent similar transfers from occurring in the future.

Specifically that the Legislature should require any funds received by a state agency (regardless of their source) to be placed into the state’s General Revenue fund and that there be “real consequences” if the law is broken.

The second recommendation is to limit how direct service organizations such as the Hope Florida Foundation use taxpayer dollars and that they track and monitor how funds are spent.