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.

The bills show administration-hired lawyers contacting Leon County prosecutors, drafting a motion days after the grand jury’s findings, and preparing a reply in the fight to keep the grand jury’s report sealed.

Invoices from the Continental PLLC law firm, obtained by the Florida Trident, are the most complete record yet of a legal engagement that ran alongside the nearly $200,000 taxpayers spent defending Katie Strickland, the former DeSantis deputy chief of staff whom grand jurors found not credible. Together the two firms have been paid $307,040.

On Dec. 1, 2025, as a Leon County grand jury was investigating how $10 million from a Medicaid settlement ended up in political committees, a lawyer hired by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office billed taxpayers $875 for one hour of “LCSAO communications,” shorthand for the Leon County State Attorney’s Office.

The invoices bill the work to the “Executive Office of the Governor” and do not identify the client.

Using taxpayer money to cover legal bills in a criminal investigation of public officials is illegal under a longstanding attorney general opinion still posted on Attorney General James Uthmeier’s website.

Florida Trident illustration

Motions to Repress

The grand jury’s report was filed under seal Jan. 28, 2026. Florida law gives anyone named in a grand jury report 15 days after it is filed to ask a judge to keep it from the public or strike portions of it.

On Feb. 9, Continental lawyer Chris Kise began billing for work on a draft motion. The rest of the entry is blacked out. He finalized the motion Feb. 12, the 15th day after the report was filed. The firm billed 71.8 hours in the 12 days before that deadline. On the same day, Boies Schiller Flexner, the firm representing Strickland, billed to “finalize” its own work.

The next day, Continental lawyer Lazaro Fields billed to “Prepare Response.”

A Feb. 26 entry by Kise runs onto a second page, where one line survives above a redaction bar: “regarding SA Response to Motions to Repress.” SA is the standard abbreviation for state attorney. The final word sits at the edge of the redaction, and its visible letters match “Repress,” the term Florida law uses for a request to keep a grand jury report sealed. The plural indicates more than one person named in the report asked a judge to suppress it.

The two firms appear to have worked in tandem. On March 6, Kise billed for a “Counsel conference call” and Fields for a “Privileged common interest discussion,” the phrase lawyers use when separate clients share strategy without giving up confidentiality. Boies Schiller’s lawyers billed for a call the same day. On March 9, both firms finalized their filings; Boies Schiller’s entry reads “Finalize reply.”

In the 30 days after the grand jury report was filed, the two firms billed $185,595 as challenges to the report were being prepared. More than 90% of their billing entries came after the report was filed. The governor’s office redacted every description beyond its first few words.

Who the lawyers are

Continental billed $875 an hour for Kise, Fields and a third lawyer, Jesus Suarez. State purchasing records show the firm was retained “at the direction of the Governor’s General Counsel, Mr. Ryan Newman,” under an engagement letter effective Oct. 30, 2025, the same date as the Boies Schiller engagement for Strickland.

Kise previously served as general counsel to Rick Scott’s transition team, where he accepted responsibility for failing to preserve an email database after dozens of gubernatorial transition team accounts, including Scott’s, were deleted in 2011 in violation of Florida’s public records law. Kise characterized the loss as an oversight. He later represented Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified-documents prosecution.

Phone calls and emails to Continental’s lawyers, including Kise, were not returned. When previously contacted by the Trident, Fields referred questions to the governor’s office and did not answer written questions.

The governor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the expenditures.

How the $10 million moved

The controversy centers on $10 million carved out of Florida’s roughly $67 million settlement with Medicaid contractor Centene, signed Sept. 27, 2024, and paid to the Hope Florida Foundation, which supported first lady Casey DeSantis’ assistance initiative. Centene wired the money to the foundation on Oct. 4, 2024. Within weeks the foundation had transferred the funds to two nonprofits, which then sent $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, the political action committee chaired by Uthmeier to fight that fall’s marijuana-legalization amendment.

DeSantis has called the money a donation and the controversy a hoax. The grand jury concluded the money was “misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities,” but found “insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally.” Its findings became public after Jim DeFede of CBS News Miami obtained the report in late August.

The grand jury found that Uthmeier, then the governor’s chief of staff, had authority over officials handling the settlement and cited testimony linking him to decisions about where the money went after reaching Hope Florida.

The foundation’s lawyer

Among the figures in the investigation is Jeff Aaron, an Orlando attorney with close ties to the DeSantis administration. The grand jury said he has “a personal and professional relationship with Governor Ron DeSantis and James Uthmeier.” Aaron’s wife, Chelsea, is the governor’s director of appointments.

On Sept. 20, 2024, a week before the state signed the Centene settlement, Aaron and six other lawyers filed papers creating DownsAaron PLLC, a law firm with offices on South Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando.

Joshua Hay, the Hope Florida Foundation’s board chair, told lawmakers that David Dewhirst, Uthmeier’s former chief of staff and now solicitor general, recommended Aaron when the two crossed paths at the state Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during one of the storms that hit Florida in 2024.

It’s unclear when Hay first spoke with Aaron, but Hay acknowledged to the grand jury that Aaron was hired because he was well-connected with the Governor’s office.

As reported earlier by the Trident, it was Strickland who asked a Department of Health official to sign the Centene settlement at the same EOC on Sept. 27, the day after Helene made landfall.

On Oct. 11, a week after the money arrived in Hope Florida’s account, Uthmeier texted Amy Ronshausen, executive director of Save Our Society From Drugs, asking for “a quick call,” then phoned her. According to the grand jury’s summary of her testimony, Uthmeier encouraged her to apply for a Hope Florida grant and put her in touch with Aaron “as the representative of Hope Florida who could assist her with the process.”

Aaron’s engagement letter with Hope Florida is dated Oct. 14, but by then he was already acting as the foundation’s lawyer. Hay told the grand jury he learned in a phone conversation with Aaron that the $10 million was coming and that a $5 million request from Secure Florida’s Future, a nonprofit tied to the Florida Chamber of Commerce, would follow.

When the request arrived by email on Sunday, Oct. 13, Hay forwarded it to Aaron. The next morning Aaron sent “the engagement letter we discussed,” at $5,000 a month. It required that any lawsuit over the contract be filed in Orange County, “where this agreement is deemed made and finally executed.” That afternoon, with Aaron in attendance, the board approved the grant and gave Hay authority to approve future requests on his own. Hay returned the signed engagement letter after the meeting.

On April 15, 2025, Hay gave sworn testimony before a Florida House Subcommittee investigating the diversion of money to Hope Florida, saying Aaron had told him about the settlement with the Agency for Health Care Administration and that the grant was aligned with the governor’s office.

Hay said Aaron had connected him in March with Keep Florida Clean’s lawyer, Mohammed Jazil, to fix the foundation’s paperwork. Hay agreed to waive attorney-client privilege. Eight days later Aaron declined to appear before the subcommittee, writing that “some board members have decided not to waive the attorney-client privilege.”

Aaron testified before the grand jury that he knew nothing of the settlement or the donation until the controversy broke. But Hay’s minutes of the Oct. 14 meeting, which Aaron attended, attribute the $10 million to “the resolution of a longstanding dispute with the Agency for Health Care Administration.” The grand jury sided with Hay, calling his testimony “transparent and credible” even as it faulted him for acting “without due diligence.”

The second grant took less than two hours. At 12:03 p.m. on Oct. 18, Ronshausen texted Aaron that her letter was drafted and asked whom to address it to and for how much. Aaron sent back an image of the Secure Florida’s Future letter: “I’d do it like that for the same amount and let’s see what the board agrees to.”

Seventy-three minutes after she emailed her letter, Hay approved a $5 million grant without a board vote. Within a week of receiving it, Save Our Society From Drugs sent $4.75 million to Uthmeir’s PAC. Her $5 million request went to Aaron, not Hay, at 12:37 p.m., and her wire instructions followed at 12:49. Aaron added Hay at 12:59, and Hay approved the grant at 1:50 p.m. without a board vote. When Ronshausen sent the bank’s wire notice on Oct. 22, Aaron replied, “EXCELLENT.”

Florida House Health Care Budget Subcommittee records/Florida Trident

The paper trail of key events keeps running back to Orlando. Aaron’s firm is there, and his contract with the Tallahassee-based foundation designates Orange County for any dispute over the agreement. Until April 7, 2026, Aaron was also the foundation’s registered agent at his firm’s Orlando office. That day, with the fight over the grand jury report’s secrecy under way, he signed as the foundation’s “Authorized Person” to move its registered office to Tallahassee.

Aaron declined the Trident’s interview request.

Rep. Alex Andrade, who led the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee hearings on the scandal, wrote in remarks prepared for the panel’s final hearing in April 2025 that he was “firmly convinced that James Uthmeier and Jeff Aaron engaged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud, and that several parties played a role in the misuse of $10 million in Medicaid funds.”

Where they are nowUthmeier, appointed attorney general by DeSantis in 2025, faces voters for the first time in November.

Ashley Moody, then attorney general, authorized her chief deputy, John Guard, to sign despite reservations he raised with her. Moody was appointed to the U.S. Senate to replace Marco Rubio and Guard was appointed to an appellate court judgeship.

Jason Weida, who as head of the Agency for Health Care Administration, signed the settlement and, according to his general counsel’s testimony, directed that $10 million go to the foundation, is now DeSantis’ chief of staff.

Katie Strickland is now chief of staff to Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, while Ryan Newman was appointed Uthmeier’s deputy chief of staff.

Last week, DeSantis appointed both Aaron and Continental lawyer Fields to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the First District Court of Appeal, the court that would hear any appeal over the report’s secrecy.

Andrew Sheeran, the AHCA lawyer who drafted the settlement agreement, was appointed as a circuit court judge in Leon County.

Who’s who in this story

• Chris Kise — Continental lawyer at $875 an hour; drafted the motion to keep the report sealed, finalized on the 15-day deadline. Former Scott transition counsel; Trump lawyer.
• Lazaro Fields — Continental lawyer; billed for a “privileged common interest discussion” alongside Strickland’s firm. Just appointed by DeSantis to the 1st DCA nominating commission.
• Continental PLLC; Boies Schiller Flexner — Both hired Oct. 30, 2025; $307,040 paid combined. Continental’s $111,387.50 client is undisclosed.
• Katie Strickland — Former DeSantis deputy chief of staff jurors found “not credible.” Taxpayers paid nearly $200,000 for her lawyers. Now CFO Blaise Ingoglia’s chief of staff.
• Jeff Aaron — Orlando lawyer for the Hope Florida Foundation at $5,000 a month; handled the $5 million grant request and wrote “EXCELLENT” when the wire went out. New 1st DCA nominating commissioner.
• Joshua Hay — Foundation board chair; approved the $5 million grant without a board vote. Jurors called him credible but faulted his lack of due diligence.
• Amy Ronshausen — Save Our Society From Drugs executive director; urged by Uthmeier to apply, her group sent $4.75 million to Keep Florida Clean.
• Rep. Alex Andrade — Led the House hearings; wrote that Uthmeier and Aaron “engaged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.”
• Ron DeSantis — Governor; his office approved the bills and redacted the descriptions. Calls the matter a “hoax.”
• James Uthmeier — Chief of staff at the time; the political committee he chaired got $8.5 million. Now attorney general, facing voters in November.
• Ryan Newman — Governor’s counsel who directed Continental’s hiring. Now Uthmeier’s deputy chief of staff.
• Jason Weida — Then AHCA secretary; signed the settlement and directed the $10 million to the foundation. Now the governor’s chief of staff.
• Ashley Moody — Then attorney general; authorized the signing. Now a U.S. senator.

• Centene, Hope Florida Foundation, Keep Florida Clean — The $67 million settlement, the foundation that got $10 million of it, and the committee where $8.5 million landed.

Michael Barfield is an award-winning investigative reporter who helps strengthen transparency and accountability across Florida. He assists reporters and the public with public records questions and requests, and he oversees and supports the organization’s litigation to enforce open government. He’s a frequent lecturer on Florida’s Public Records Act and Sunshine Law, serves on the governance committee of Investigative Reporters & Editors, and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Barfield is a former President of the ACLU of Florida, a life member of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and has twice been named by Sarasota Magazine as one of the most influential people in Sarasota. He lives in Sarasota with his wife, Iru.