HOPE FLORIDA

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.

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.

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.

A scathing grand jury report found officials in DeSantis’ administration “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer funds.