Florida abandoned transparency in gift to Trump library

“Secrecy breeds corruption, and transparency protects liberty.” – Connor Boyack

When Marvin Dunn learned about a clandestine deal through which Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, and company bestowed President Donald Trump with 2.63 acres of prime real estate in downtown Miami, he was so incensed he filed suit.

Dunn’s lawsuit alleges that when Miami-Dade College and Florida officials orchestrated the land transfer, ostensibly for a Trump presidential library, they violated Florida’s open government law because there was no transparency or opportunity for public comment.

“According to the state emoluments law, the state cannot give the president gifts. It’s against the Constitution,” Dunn told the Phoenix in an Aug. 13 interview. “Oh yes, it was land grab, almost a land steal.”

In a separate interview with South Florida public radio, Dunn explained further.

“It hit me immediately as a theft of land that belongs to children unborn in Miami-Dade County,” he said. “You’re stealing land from children who are not even born yet, and any politician who would stoop to that … is entitled to my sense of anger and repulsion.”

Dunn and people familiar with the situation say the board held an emergency meeting and unanimously voted to seal the deal. Shortly after the meeting, Uthmeier announced plans for the Trump library on that site.

“This was underhanded, behind-the-scenes scheming by Ron DeSantis, the governor. The governor orchestrated this whole thing,” Dunn said. “People were following his orders, and I take this straight to his doorstep. Ron DeSantis orchestrated to steal land that belongs to our kids for Donald Trump, the person he apparently idolizes.”

Dunn, an historian and civil rights advocate, said his lawsuit seeks to halt the transfer and force the board to comply with public transparency requirements under state law.

DeSantis has not commented on the lawsuit but insists having the Trump library in Miami would be “good for Florida.”

Prime real estate

The prime piece of real estate — one of the last undeveloped parcels on Biscayne Boulevard — is valued by Miami Dade real estate appraisers at $67 million and possibly could fetch as much as $300 million.

The property was transferred to a state fund overseen by DeSantis and then deeded to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. The land is located near the waterfront, across from the Miami Heat arena, and had previously been used as a college parking lot.

Miami-Dade paid $24 million for the plot in 2004. The college received no money in return for signing over its land to the state, while it could cost the college up to $300,000 in legal fees, Javier Ley-Soto, general counsel for the college, testified in a court hearing last month.

Dunn has held “teach ins” and rallies to educate the public while trying to organize community opposition from those teed-off by Florida officials’ actions. The only beneficiaries are politicians in high places seeking to placate Trump, he said.

“Miami Dade College is a public institution that serves primarily Black and brown students,” Dunn told WLRN. “They’re struggling for scholarship money. They’re struggling to keep faculty and staff on board, and then to have this giveaway is just an insult to the community.”

According to WLRN, a poll conducted in October by the public research firm Bendixen & Amandi showed 74% of respondents believed that Miami Dade College should keep the land. Opposition to the transfer included 59% of Republicans.

“We want to have students out there,” said Dunn. “We want to have faculty members, community members, anyone who cares about the future of Miami Dade College, who wants to come out on the same day that the president is speaking to say, ‘Don’t take this land from our kids.’”

Litigation

Dunn said his lawsuit is moving forward.

“It has been assigned to a judge in federal court. Oct. 1 is the date when he will announce whether the case will continue or be dismissed,” he told the Phoenix.

Will he win? Dunn was asked. “Of course, I expect to win. If the Constitution is followed, we will prevail.”

The case survived Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz tossing out a temporary injunction she’d imposed to block the planned land transfer.

“This is not an easy decision,” Ruiz said in explaining her ruling from the bench, finding that the college hadn’t given the public reasonable notice ahead of the vote last month but staged a second vote following a public hearing. “This is not a case, at least for this court, rooted in politics,” she said.

In response to the Dunn legal filing, Uthmeier pulled together a band of state-funded lawyers to defend Miami-Dade College.

“Under my authority as Florida’s Chief Legal Officer, our office stepped in Wednesday) to represent Miami-Dade College in this bogus lawsuit,” Uthmeier posted on his X account.

Uthmeier, 38, running for election in November after being placed in the job by DeSantis, was hunting for Trump’s endorsement and got it after the land transfer powerplay, Norman says.

“And just a week after Uthmeier voted for the land transfer, Trump gave him a rousing all-caps-strewn endorsement,” Norman writes.

Bait and switch?

“James is an America First Warrior, who is a true champion for ‘MAGA,’” Trump wrote online. “He is THE MAN behind ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ … James Uthmeier is a Strong Conservative Fighter and Prosecutor, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement — HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”

Ben Wilcox, research director for the nonprofit watchdog group Integrity Florida, says the endorsement smacks of a political quid pro quo, Norman noted.

“It does give the appearance that the endorsement of Uthmeier by Trump was transactional,” Wilcox told the reporter. “It’s just ugly.”

Dunn points to evidence Trump plans a bait and switch. The Trump Organization has released plans for a towering skyscraper complete with a giant golden statue of Trump and the $400 million Boeing 747 gifted to him by Qatar displayed in the lobby.

“President Trump said the quiet part out loud: ‘I don’t believe in building libraries or museums,’ adding, ‘It’s going to be most likely a hotel,’” Norman notes.

That inspired another lawsuit, this one by the Constitutional Accountability Center in Washington, D.C.

CAC’s attorney wrote in the still-active federal complaint, “Due to the President’s influence on so many aspects of federal policy … every state has an incentive to enrich the President should such private rewards be permitted. To avoid even the possibility that conflicts of interest like these would harm the American people by compromising their leaders’ judgment, the Founders enshrined the prohibitions of the Domestic Emoluments Clause in our national charter.”

Dunn says the president’s admission it would be a hotel helped make the case a “very powerful” one, Norman said.

‘Big foot’

“It’s a big foot and it’s hard to extract it from his mouth,” Dunn told Norman of Trump’s admission. “He gave truth to the central element of our lawsuit, that the president took a personal gift from the State of Florida with a commercial benefit. A hotel is a leap into another universe. It has no relationship to the mission of a presidential library.”

Dunn said he’s prepared to take his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but in the Phoenix interview worried that Trump “will delay and delay.”

“My concern is that the president will stretch it out until he leaves office,” he said.

Dunn castigated Uthmeier, saying he has done a disservice to Floridians.

“He has represented himself and has not represented the public well. I am extremely outraged with his University of Florida “job.” He is making eight times the regular adjunct’s pay. It’s a scam job,” Dunn said. “He may not be required to be on campus at all but if he is, is he using the state airplane and state security on his $100,000 a year scam job? I doubt that he drives from Tallahassee to Gainesville twice a week. I’m also wondering, does he have a new contract this fall?”

When asked whether the bad press that has dogged Uthmeier — “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Hope Florida Foundation debacle, and the land grab — will damage him enough to cause him to lose, Dunn said he’s not sure.

“That’s a good question. I think so, but only if the public becomes aware of the egregious behavior of this man in office. It will help him because his is a down-ballot race. I hope he is defeated in November, because Florida can’t afford to have him in office for another term.”