Grand Jury Report Says DeSantis Administration Is Corrupt as Hell, but No One Will Face Charges
"While we can't prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes."
Photo via Getty Images, Joe Raedle Splinter ron desantis
Just a casual Thursday entry in the “surely this will surprise absolutely no one” file: The report of a Florida grand jury that was completed in January but had been hidden ever since has leaked, demonstrating that members of said grand jury concluded that the DeSantis administration is just wildly, comically corrupt. But despite this–and perhaps having a little something to do with the fact that one of the most prominent people in that report is now the state’s current attorney general–the grand jury also decided it lacked the ability to bring any charges in the case, which involves what it termed the “misappropriation” of $10 million in taxpayer dollars, funneled toward a charity founded by Ron DeSantis’ own wife, Hope Florida Foundation. Or to put it bluntly: Basically, because no one ‘fessed up to personally being responsible for the diversion of the funds, and no one was pointing any fingers, no one could be charged for having done it.
As the grand jury put it in its report, as revealed by CBS News Miami: “Despite our finding that the money was misappropriated, we find insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally. 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. 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.”
Well, as long as they “recognize” that this would be an “impediment to criminal prosecution,” I guess we’ll just have to settle for absolutely no justice for painfully obvious graft, eh? What else is new?
Corrupt AF
www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/g…
— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) 11:24 PM · Aug 26, 2026
The scheme involved the payment of a settlement to the state of Florida by Medicaid contractor Centene, which Florida learned in 2021 had been overbilling the state for prescription drugs under the Florida Healthy Kids program. Centene, in the proposed settlement, would have given Florida $67 million. The DeSantis administration, however, had a different, entirely novel idea: Instead of paying the state $67 million, pay it $57 million and pay the remaining $10 million in taxpayer dollars directly to the nonprofit Hope Florida Foundation, founded by DeSantis’ spouse Casey DeSantis to lead her signature Hope Florida initiative. Even Centene’s lawyers found this extraordinarily fishy according to CBS, and sought to have the official documentation of the settlement state for the record that they were being instructed to send $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation by the state’s then attorney general, Ashley Moody. Her office apparently balked at that, clearly not wanting responsibility, and the agreement was rewritten to be made at the direction of the DeSantis’ administration’s Agency for Health Care Administration without any name attached to it. Moody, meanwhile, was appointed by Gov. DeSantis as the new junior U.S. Senator for Florida in 2025, replacing Marco Rubio when he became Secretary of State.
But wait, because the political incestuousness goes so much further! The state’s current attorney general is James Uthmeier, but at the time of the transactions he was serving as Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff. He was described by the grand jury report as having been “in a position of authority over those involved in settling” with Centene, and witnesses who testified to the grand jury also described him as “having involvement” in directing the money after it went to Hope Florida Foundation. Uthmeier has denied all of this in vague terms, saying that the entire investigation is a “hoax” and that “Nobody did anything wrong here.” Naturally, he is currently most concerned about who leaked the report, even though the reports generated by Florida grand juries (which are themselves secret) are typically released.
But wait, where did the money go once it reached Hope Florida Foundation? I’m glad you asked. The $10 million actually spent less than a month in the nonprofit’s coffers, to the total surprise of the chairman of the foundation at the time, according to CBS. He testified to the grand jury that as soon as he was informed that the money was coming, he was likewise informed that it was going to be shuffled on to several nonprofit “dark money” PACs, which would be using the funds to purchase massive amounts of televised advertising. The primary topic of those ads? Anti-cannabis advertising that was clearly meant to sway public opinion against the Nov. 2024 Florida state amendment on the ballot about legalizing marijuana. That amendment would capture majority support, with 56% of the state voting in favor … but would not become law, because amendments require 60% support to pass. Probably unrelated: A Florida state health department official who resigned last year afterward accused DeSantis of directing him to send threatening letters to TV stations, threatening them with legal action if they didn’t stop airing other ads the administration didn’t like.
“the money, which was supposed to be used to provide health insurance for poor children, was instead hastily passed through multiple organizations before eventually landing in the bank accounts of two political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida.”
www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/g…— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) 7:51 PM · Aug 26, 2026
Oh, and by the way: Can you guess who was running BOTH of the major PACs (Keep Florida Clean, Florida Freedom Fund) at the time, that were buying this anti-cannabis ad space? Would you believe it was James Uthmeier, the current Attorney General of Florida, according to The New York Times? Wow, and you say that the grand jury was hesitant to bring charges against anyone in this case, huh? I don’t suppose that has anything to do with said attorney general threatening litigation against reporters on live TV for asking questions about this news story?
The intended purpose of the Centene settlement in the first place, mind you, was supposed to be largely to provide funds for child welfare programs, providing health coverage for impoverished minors while also funding other programs on subjects like opioid addiction. The grand jury report says they were told that Hope Florida was selected to receive the $10 million slice of those funds because it would work toward those aims … and then it sent the money off to PACs to buy anti-cannabis TV commercials with it instead.
“We were told Hope Florida was chosen as the beneficiary of the initial donation because the Centene settlement was compensation for ripping off sick poor children and Hope Florida’s mission and work was aligned with the purpose of serving needy children with health issues,” says the grand jury report. “Hope Florida was touted by some witnesses as a high-profile project with a high success rate, but we were unable to get any evidence to substantiate these representations. On the contrary, other witnesses referred to Hope Florida as just a concept and did not have a clear understanding of what it did, where it existed, or how it operated. So, we fail to see the nexus between Hope Florida and the Centene settlement, and even if there was a nexus, it was rendered moot by the fact that the money only stayed in Hope Florida’s account for a couple of days.”
There are countless other, fine details of corruption one could choose to call out here, but the one that particularly enrages me for whatever reason is the following: Even the payment schedule outlined in the agreement entirely prioritized the $10 million being funneled to the Hope Florida Foundation, rather than the money owed to Florida taxpayers. The grand jury found that the agreement required Centene to make a wire transfer of $10 million to Hope Florida within seven days of its signing … but simultaneously said Centene could take more than a year in repaying the other $57 million to Florida! Because who cares about that cash, right? It’s just boring old taxpayer money that the legislature gets to decide how to use, rather than sexy, fun money you’ve funneled to a nonprofit founded by the governor’s wife! There’s rules and shit for that other, boring money.
Wild, yet unexpected, response. Uthmeier asks a reporter if he is soliciting a crime in asking Uthmeier about the grand jury report.
Sorry, but here’s the video at X: x.com/ReOpenChris/…
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) 1:18 PM · Aug 27, 2026
What more can you say, in the face of such blatant corruption going entirely unpunished? Ron DeSantis’ term as governor of Florida comes to an end in January, and he has declined to endorse any of the challengers looking to take up the position. Little is known of what he intends to do with himself going forward, following a humiliating defeat by Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. Our bet: He returns to full-on Trump groveling mode and attempts to find himself an empty cabinet seat, regardless of whatever it may be. No doubt he would fit right in, when it comes to finding ways to “misappropriate” going forward.
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