DeSantis admin misappropriated $10M to Hope Florida, leaked grand jury report concludes

WASHINGTON — The DeSantis administration “misappropriated” funds when it sent $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the Casey DeSantis-aligned Hope Florida Foundation, a grand jury found, according to a leaked report.Yet because the grand jury was unable to identify a clear-cut culprit for the misappropriation, it didn’t recommend anyone be criminally charged, according to a copy of the report obtained by CBS News.

“Despite our finding that the money was misappropriated, we find insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally,” the report said, according to the outlet.“Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida… or had any memory of who made it.”“We recognize that this would be an impediment to criminal prosecution,” the report added, according to CBS.

“While we can’t prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes, and we would like to see changes made to prevent this from happening again.”Hope Florida somehow got $10 million of the $67 million available to Florida in a settlement from the health care firm Centene Corporation and a Sunshine State agency for overbilling taxpayers for prescription drugs.From there, the funds flowed to the Republican Party of Florida and two political action committees with ties to James Uthmeier, who was the governor’s chief of staff at the time but now serves as the state’s attorney general.

Those funds were then used to fight Amendment 3 in 2024, which would’ve legalized marijuana in Florida for recreational use by adults, but was voted down.“This baseless smear has been debunked over and over again,” Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis’ communications director Alex Lanfranconi told The Post.“In fact, if any confidential grand jury report was leaked to the press, that’s the only crime committed.”Hope Florida is Casey’s social welfare initiative that works to make poor peop...