JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis continued their statewide tour advocating for Hope Florida in St Augustine on Thursday.
The event happened just after a Florida House subcommittee announced it would end an inquiry into the state program’s charity arm.
“This whole thing has been debunked,” said DeSantis in an exclusive interview with Action News Jax in reaction to the news.
Watch or read the full interview: Governor Ron DeSantis addresses revolt in the House, Hope Florida inquiry
For the past two weeks, Republican lawmakers in the Florida House have been digging into how a $10 million donation for the Hope Florida Foundation ended up in a state settlement negotiated with healthcare provider Centene.
The charity wing of the Florida First Lady’s passion project then went out in the form of two $5 million grants awarded to two anti-drug nonprofits.
The two groups then distributed a combined $8.5 million to the campaign aimed at defeating the effort to legalize recreational marijuana, which was run by the Governor’s Chief of Staff, turned Attorney General, James Uthmeier.
Chair Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola) ended his investigation after the heads of the two non-profits declined to participate in a panel discussion.
But he said he still believes the transfer of funds constituted money laundering and wire fraud, and left it up to prosecutors to decide whether to pursue criminal charges.
“We as legislators will not be the ones making the ultimate charging decisions,” said Andrade.
So far, at least on the state level, there is no active criminal inquiry.
“I know that the Florida Legislature has lots of great lawyers, including some former prosecutors. If they find evidence of a crime, I’m sure they will refer it to me,” said State Attorney for Florida’s 2nd Judicial Circuit Jack Campbell in a statement provided to Action News Jax.
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Despite Andrade’s comments, DeSantis said he’s not worried.
“Totally irresponsible and ridiculous. It’s politically motivated. It’s been debunked, obviously with what AHCA has put out, but this is a program that’s done a lot of good for people,” said DeSantis.
But State Representative Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) said she believes the end of the House inquiry may actually signal the possibility of a forthcoming criminal investigation.
“I am very hopeful that this is not the end, but this is the beginning of chapter two. You know, what the Florida House was able to expose was quite damning,” said Eskamani. ”You have public money being fraudulently wired to entities engaging in electioneering and doing that with very powerful people involved.”
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The end of the House inquiry comes a day after the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration provided documentation showing Centene estimated the state had overpaid for Medicaid services by the same amount of money that ultimately went into state coffers.
The Governor asserted the revelation proves the $10 million donation to the Foundation was in addition to the settlement, and therefore, not state Medicaid dollars.
We asked the Governor what he had to say to taxpayers who don’t like the optics of the transfer of funds, illegal or not.
“This was something that was negotiated by AHCA, our agency, with this company and they identified $56 million that they agreed upon to be recouped. The $10 million private donation was over and above that, that’s what AHCA said from the beginning,” said DeSantis. “So, what they did was entirely appropriate.”
And DeSantis argued in the end, the donation ended up supporting a cause in alignment with the mission of Hope Florida, which aims to get Floridians off of government assistance and connected with help in their communities.
“Yes, fighting drugs, because if you look at more than 50 percent of the children who are in need, have drugs in the household. That’s a big problem,” said DeSantis.
Watch the full interview on YouTube:
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