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Credit: Photo via Ashley Moody\/Twitter<\/p>\nCredit: Photo via Ashley Moody\/Twitter<\/p>\n
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried is calling on Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody to use her power to seek release of a grand jury report into the $10 million in taxpayer funds diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation in 2024.<\/p>\n
Hope Florida is the community-based, state-wide welfare assistance initiative launched by First Lady Casey DeSantis in 2021.<\/p>\n
That $10 million was part of a legal settlement that the state later diverted by Hope Florida to political committees \u2014 one controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 then-chief of staff James Uthmeier \u2014 and used to help defeat a 2024 ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n
Revelation of the controversy led to\u00a0an investigation in the Florida House of Representatives in 2025\u00a0<\/a>and later a grand jury\u00a0investigation<\/a>\u00a0by State Attorney Jack Campbell in Tallahassee. No charges were brought in that investigation but, under\u00a0state law<\/a>, the report was supposed to have been released within 15 days of its completion, unless someone in the report (or \u201cpresentment\u201d<\/a>) objected and asked for redactions or withholding.<\/p>\n Moody approved the transfer of the $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation as part of a larger $67 million agreement the Florida Agency of Healthcare Administration (AHCA) signed with Centene Health Plan, one of several managed care providers the state contracts with to provide health services to the poor, elderly, and disabled. The other $57 million went to the agency.<\/p>\n State Rep. Alex Andrade, a Republican from Pensacola, told\u00a0CBS Miami<\/a>\u00a0over the weekend he has \u201cnothing but respect for Senator Moody, but the Attorney General\u2019s office was a signatory to the settlement with Centene that led to this money going to the Hope Florida Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrade said that along with John Guard, who served as the deputy attorney general under Moody at the time, the only other person who could answer such questions \u201cwould be Senator Moody.\u201d<\/p>\n Moody is running for election for the U.S. Senate for the first time this November after being appointed to the position last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The two Democrats vying to run against her in the fall, Alex Vindman and Angie Nixon, have criticized Moody about her involvement with the Hope Florida situation, and party chair Fried said Wednesday that she should call on Uthmeier to release the report.<\/p>\n \u201cFloridians deserve answers,\u201d Fried told reporters Wednesday on a Zoom conference call. \u201cWhat did Ashley Moody know? When did she know it? What is so damning in this report that she still is trying to keep it sealed? Ashley needs to stop keeping secrets from the people of this state. It\u2019s time she owns up and shows up. That starts with immediately unsealing the grand jury report in the findings of the Hope Florida scandal. Something she can call on the attorney general to do today.\u201d<\/p>\n Uthmeier mum<\/p>\n Uthmeier has refused to say whether he has asked a judge to keep that grand jury report secret. When asked about the report during a meeting of the Tampa Tiger Bay Club in April, the attorney general\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0he was\u00a0not allowed to confirm or deny that there is grand jury report, adding that \u201cnobody did anything wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been a politically motivated and media-driven farce,\u201d he said. On other occasions,\u00a0he has said<\/a>\u00a0that the only people who care about the topic are \u201cthe liberal media.\u201d<\/p>\n Fried says the fact that the public has not been allowed to view the Leon County grand jury reporting on Hope Florida is \u201ca travesty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it is DeSantis or whether it is Uthmeier or whether it is Moody, this is information that people in our state need to know,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have Sunshine laws for a reason. And if there\u2019s been criminal activity or unethical activity from those who have been put in charge with the responsibility of protecting and defending this state, the people of this state need to know the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n The Phoenix reached out to Sen. Moody\u2019s campaign for comment but did not receive an immediate response.<\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n