Prosecutors convening grand jury in Hope Florida investigation

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Prosecutors in Tallahassee are convening a grand jury relating to the Hope Florida Foundation, marking a potentially serious development that could lead to criminal charges in the ongoing scandal.

In recent weeks, the state attorney’s office for the 2nd Judicial Circuit has issued subpoenas for witnesses to appear before a grand jury the week of Oct. 13, two sources close to the matter told the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald.

Who those witnesses are — and who is the subject of the probe — have not been disclosed. State Attorney Jack Campbell declined to comment.

In May, Campbell’s office confirmed that a criminal investigation was underway relating to information given about the Hope Florida Foundation, the charity spearheaded by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis.

The investigation began after revelations that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration directed $10 million from a legal settlement with the Medicaid contractor Centene through the foundation for the governor’s political purposes.

Nearly all of the money ended up in a political committee controlled by DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, which was dedicated to defeating last year’s recreational marijuana amendment. DeSantis has since named Uthmeier attorney general.

The money became the focus of a House probe this spring led by state Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican. At the end of his investigation, he turned over documents to Campbell’s office and to federal prosecutors.

Andrade said in April that he believed Uthmeier and Jeff Aaron, a lawyer for the Hope Florida Foundation, “engaged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.”

Spokespeople for DeSantis and Uthmeier did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. Aaron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The governor has denied any wrongdoing. In May, after Campbell’s office confirmed to the Times/Herald the existence of an active criminal investigation, DeSantis denounced it as “political” and took aim at Andrade.

“He took documents and he dropped them in a prosecutor’s office,” DeSantis said. “That is not an organic investigation, that’s a manufactured political operation.”

“There is no basis to do an investigation on these facts,” he added. “Everybody knows it.”

Grand juries are not usually called by prosecutors unless they feel they have potential evidence of a crime. The juries can also be used by prosecutors to avoid issuing charges themselves, which can be useful in politically charged cases.

When seeking to prosecute someone, a state attorney can directly file charges against them, or they can choose to present the evidence before a grand jury, composed of citizens who are tasked with deciding whether there is probable cause to issue an indictment and move on to a trial.

Grand juries are often convened for high-level felony and public corruption cases. They are secretive proceedings, where the subject or subjects of the investigation have no representative and no chance to provide their side of the story.

Jurors could choose not to issue an indictment, although that is rare. Or they could return an indictment for different charges than the state seeks.

The Hope Florida Foundation scandal consumed this year’s legislative session and has dampened prospects of Casey DeSantis running to succeed her husband in 2026. The governor is term-limited.

Hope Florida is a multiagency state program envisioned and led by the first lady to move Floridians off of government services and connect them to local churches and nonprofits. The Hope Florida Foundation is intended to assist the state program by collecting donations and giving money to those churches and nonprofits.

But questions about the effectiveness and validity of the program came to a head this year when DeSantis asked lawmakers to enshrine Hope Florida into law, making it a state program that would outlast his tenure.

House Republicans found that the foundation, created by the state in 2023, wasn’t complying with state laws requiring it to make available its mission, its three-year plan, its code of ethics, its tax returns and other records. Its board meetings were also being held in secret, against state law.

But meeting minutes from October of last year showed it received a $10 million donation from an unknown source. The DeSantis administration refused to disclose the source of the money until April, when an official pressed by Andrade’s committee said it came from a $67 million settlement with the Medicaid contractor Centene.

Florida was one of about 20 states that Centene settled with over claims of overbilling for Medicaid prescription drugs.

DeSantis said the $10 million the Hope Florida Foundation got in the settlement was a charitable contribution — a “cherry on top” of what the company owed the state.

The settlement states that Centene was “directed” by the state to divert $10 million of the $67 million to the foundation. Records showed that the original proposal was $67 million, and that DeSantis administration officials inserted the $10 million late in the negotiation process.

Lawyers for Centene then tried to distance their clients from the agreement, records show.

Once the $10 million was given to the foundation, the board and its president quickly gave it away to two nonprofits, one of which was controlled by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Those organizations then gave nearly all of it to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee controlled by Uthmeier dedicated to defeating last year’s recreational marijuana ballot initiative. Andrade said this spring that he obtained text messages showing that Uthmeier and Aaron were involved in the transfers of money.

On Thursday, the Times/Herald submitted a records request to the Leon County state attorney’s office for any subpoenas that were served related to Hope Florida. The request was denied on Friday due to the active investigation.

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(Tampa Bay Times staff writer Dan Sullivan contributed to this report.)

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