<\/p>\n
Florida State Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier talk during the first day of the legislative session at the Florida State Capitol on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Tallahassee, Fla.<\/p>\n
Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Tallahassee<\/p>\n
Attorney General James Uthmeier\u2019s office spent the weekend urging anti-abortion groups to protest the Republican lawmaker who accused him of crimes in the Hope Florida saga last year, according to multiple people and messages circulating in the faith community.<\/p>\n
In an apparent bout of political payback, a spokesperson for Uthmeier reached out to faith groups falsely alleging that Rep. Alex Andrade was proposing cutting funding for the chain of anti-abortion clinics known as the Florida Pregnancy Care Network. Uthmeier\u2019s spokesperson asked groups to protest and carry signs in the House budget committee Andrade oversees on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow at 4pm, Rep. Andrade\u2019s subcommittee is scheduled to meet for the LAST time, with almost three weeks left in Session,\u201d states the message by Uthmeier spokesperson Jae Williams. \u201cThere is more than enough time to tackle big issues, and fund the [Florida Pregnancy Care Network].\u201d<\/p>\n
The spokesperson added: \u201cFor anyone who is willing and able to attend the meeting tomorrow, the Attorney General would love to host them in his office at 3:30pm for a time of prayer before the meeting. Please have them RSVP to me directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message also highlighted how Planned Parenthood is a client of the Pensacola law firm where Andrade works, a claim that Uthmeier and his spokespeople have been repeating for weeks on X<\/a>. Andrade says he is \u201cpro-life,\u201d believes that \u201clife begins at conception,\u201d and that he has voted for every bill reflecting those beliefs in his eight years serving in the House. He isn\u2019t a partner at his firm, and is not working on the Planned Parenthood case.<\/p>\n Williams suggested activists carry signs such as, \u201cStop working for Planned Parenthood, Andrade.\u201d<\/p>\n The requests set off a furor among anti-abortion activists, including the Florida Pregnancy Care Network, whose director, Rita Gagliano, emailed colleagues Sunday night assuring them that she had no indication their funding was in jeopardy. She blamed politics for the confusion.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease know that we have it on very good authority that the funding is safe, and we have been specifically asked to convey that assurance to all of you,\u201d Gagliano wrote. \u201cSadly, it appears we may have been caught in the undertow of some political crosscurrents.\u201d<\/p>\n The Florida Pregnancy Care Network declined to comment to the Herald\/Times.<\/p>\n Andrade said in a text message to the Herald\/Times Monday that the office\u2019s campaign was \u201cwithout a doubt\u201d retribution for his committee\u2019s investigation into Hope Florida last year. Andrade accused Uthmeier of money laundering and wire fraud for his involvement in the diversion of nearly $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement to a political committee he controlled in 2024. Uthmeier was Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 chief of staff at the time.<\/p>\n A criminal grand jury in Tallahassee opened an investigation but hasn\u2019t released its findings. Uthmeier has denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has no moral compass,\u201d Andrade said in a text.<\/p>\n When the Herald\/Times reached out to Uthmeier\u2019s office Sunday evening, Uthmeier\u2019s deputy chief of staff, Jeremy Redfern, initially denied that the office\u2019s spokesperson was asking groups to protest Andrade\u2019s committee.<\/p>\n \u201cWould be news to Jae or anyone else in our office,\u201d Redfern responded in an email.<\/p>\n Once the issue began being discussed on the social media platform X, Redfern walked his statement back.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the AG is on the road and not at the Capitol tomorrow afternoon, we\u2019ve heard from multiple pro-life groups over the past couple weeks who have expressed disgust over Alan Andrade\u2019s law firm taking in blood money from Planned Parenthood,\u201d Redfern stated, according to a social media post<\/a> he sent the Herald\/Times.<\/p>\n For weeks, Uthmeier has been erroneously referring to Andrade as \u201cAlan\u201d Andrade.<\/p>\n Redfern added: \u201cIf members of the AG\u2019s staff are standing strong for life in their free time, we wholeheartedly support it.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if he was confirming that Williams or other employees of Uthmeier\u2019s office called the anti-abortion groups and encouraged them to protest Andrade, Redfern did not respond.<\/p>\n The DeSantis administration tried to strip<\/a> the Florida Pregnancy of funding last year, after it refused officials\u2019 request to run ads against 2024\u2019s Amendment 4, the ballot initiative that would have overturned Florida\u2019s six-week abortion ban. The network\u2019s board, fearing that political ads would jeopardize its nonprofit status, chose to run more neutral television spots focused on its anti-abortion services and its hotline.<\/p>\n Andrade told the Herald\/Times that he was contacted by more than one organization that feared he had cut funding to the Florida Pregnancy Care Network. Andrade said groups tipped him off to the protest after realizing that \u201cJae had lied to them about the funding in my budget.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve since been in contact with two other groups who had also decided not to participate [in the protest] after confirming the AG\u2019s office was lying to them,\u201d Andrade said.<\/p>\n Andrew Shirvell, the founder of the anti-abortion group, Florida Voice for the Unborn, posted<\/a> Williams\u2019 message on X.<\/p>\n Shirvell told the Herald\/Times he had not been contacted by Williams directly, but said that several people had sent him Williams\u2019 message.<\/p>\n Shirvell said he thinks Uthmeier\u2019s office is trying to \u201cdistract\u201d from the confirmation hearing of Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris, which is happening at the same time as Andrade\u2019s committee on Monday.<\/p>\n