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The Hope Florida grand jury report is public, sealed, and expunged all at once, and the legal fight over it just got messier. A group named in the report asked the 1st District Court of Appeal to stop its publication and was turned down.
- The Republican Party of Florida went to a Highlands County judge to stop TV stations from running Democratic ads about it, and the judge refused to halt the ads immediately but set a hearing.
Meanwhile, the appeals court is pressing Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell to explain how the report leaked, and has now ordered those named in it to show why the entire court record shouldn’t be opened to the public.
The report found the $10 million diverted from a Medicaid settlement was “misappropriated,” but no one could be indicted. The appeals court later said the money was never state money to begin with.
Push to Quash Hope Florida Grand Jury Report Deepens
By Gray Rohrer, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE – The legal position of the Hope Florida grand jury report, already widely reported but also expunged by an appellate court, grew murkier Tuesday amid a multi-pronged effort to prohibit any publication of the document.
A group of people named in the grand jury report, first leaked in August, petitioned the 1st District Court of Appeal on Friday to “prohibit illegal publication” of the report, but the request was denied. The substance of the petition and the court order aren’t publicly available, but a court docket of the case shows the petition was denied.
In a separate case filed by the Republican Party of Florida, a Highlands County judge on Tuesday rejected its request to immediately stop television stations from airing political ads from the Florida Democratic Party highlighting the report. RPOF had filed the lawsuit late Friday evening, as first reported by the Florida Trident. Judge Peter Estrada denied the request to immediately halt the ads, but ordered a hearing to be held over the matter.
The 1st DCA has already ordered Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell, who oversaw the grand jury proceedings, to justify his actions surrounding the handling of the report. Now, it’s ordering those named in the report to show why the entire court proceedings shouldn’t be made public.
In two separate cases before the 1st DCA, the court on Monday and Tuesday ordered those named in the report to, within five days, “show cause why the briefs, record on appeal, notices, motions, and other filings of the parties should not be given unrestricted status on the docket and made available for public viewing.”
The report was finalized in January. It found that while the diversion of $10 million from a $67 million Medicaid settlement in 2024 that ended up in a political committee headed by James Uthmeier, then-Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff, meant the money was “misappropriated,” no one could be indicted in the case.
Uthmeier was later appointed by DeSantis as attorney general in January 2025, and is in the middle of an election campaign against Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez, a former state senator who was named as a defendant in RPOF’s lawsuit.
The money was first given to the Hope Florida Foundation as part of the settlement with Centene to resolve overpayments. That group then gave the money to two nonprofits, which then gave the money to Uthmeier’s political committee, which opposed two measures on the 2024 ballot. The proposals would have legalized recreational marijuana and installed a right to an abortion in the state constitution, but failed to pass.
The lack of an indictment means under state law the report can be sealed and blocked from public view. Those named in the report petitioned a trial court to prevent its publication, and the trial court partially agreed, saying part of the report could be made public with some redactions.
Those named in the report appealed to the 1st DCA, which originally ruled on Aug. 25 the grand jury presentment should be expunged, but that ruling was also kept hidden from public view. Within 24 hours, the unredacted report was publicized by CBS News Miami.
In its expungement order, the 1st DCA found the grand jury was incorrect on the law, that the $10 million was never “state money” since it was part of a settlement that was completed before any legal action was started, therefore the money wasn’t “misappropriated.”
The leak led to an inquest from the 1st DCA. Initially, Campbell pointed to the 1st DCA’s administration, but the court has stated it never received the unredacted grand jury report until Sept. 9.
On Oct. 9, the court gave Campbell five days to show why a special master shouldn’t be appointed to investigate the leak of the report, why he shouldn’t be sanctioned for implying the clerks of the trial court or the 1st DCA had inadvertently leaked the report, and why he shouldn’t be referred to the Florida Bar for disciplinary action. Campbell responded on Oct. 13 with a more than 200-page filing, but that has been sealed by the court.
On Friday, the court ordered Campbell to detail which parts of his response should be redacted. And on Monday and Tuesday came the two orders to all parties involved to justify why all the court filings shouldn’t be made public.