Governor Ron DeSantis

The Florida Center for Government Accountability (FLCGA) and its executive director, Michael Barfield, have asked the First District Court of Appeal to reconsider its October 7 decision ordering a Leon County grand jury’s presentment expunged in its entirety. The presentment, filed January 28, 2026, concerned senior state officials and $10 million from the State’s $67 million Medicaid settlement with Centene Corporation that was paid to the Hope Florida Foundation, the direct-support organization of the Department of Children and Families.

The retreat comes five days after the First District Court of Appeal denied Attorney General James Uthmeier’s own emergency bid to block the same ad.

Highlands County judge denies Florida GOP’s effort to ban Hope Florida ads.

The Republican Party of Florida is threatening criminal prosecution of television stations, the Democratic Party and, by the terms of its own legal theory, anyone who repeats a Leon County grand jury’s finding that high-ranking state officials diverted $10 million in the Hope Florida scandal.

State purchasing records show a flurry of payments to private law firms hired to represent public officials scrutinized by a grand jury.

A state appellate court on Wednesday ordered a grand jury report alleging $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was “misappropriated” to be expunged.

Florida taxpayers paid a second law firm $111,387.50 to represent an unidentified person in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office amid a grand jury investigation into $10 million diverted from the public treasury to Hope Florida that ended up in political committees.

Six weeks before the general election, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials on Thursday hailed the indictments of 20 people on voting fraud charges. Two of the 20 cases involve Lee County people, one is from Collier County, another is from Okeechobee County and a fourth is from DeSoto County.

State records show the controversial initiative shifted priorities away from DCF’s eligibility division that has since failed federal standards and left Floridians cut off.

Florida taxpayers on the hook for more than a half-million in legal fees for Hope Florida probe