{"id":423111,"date":"2026-10-09T09:32:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423111\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T09:32:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:32:34","slug":"correct-the-record-florida-gov-desantis-calls-out-cbs-miami-over-hope-florida-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423111\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Correct the record:\u2019 Florida Gov. DeSantis calls out CBS Miami over Hope Florida case"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI, Fla. \u2013 After a bombshell appellate court order<\/a> called for the Hope Florida grand jury report to be expunged, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a victory lap on Thursday morning \u2014 though he called out CBS News Miami in particular.<\/p>\n

More specifically, DeSantis spoke on the court decision during a news conference in Miami, claiming that it found:<\/p>\n

No \u201cmisappropriation\u201d<\/p>\n

No tax dollars were used at all<\/p>\n

No Medicaid money was involved with the Hope Florida donation<\/p>\n

The 1st DCA eviscerated the phony narratives re: AHCA\u2019s pre-suit settlement and the private donation to DCF\u2019s direct support organization, the Hope foundation:<\/p>\n

1. No \u201cmisappropriation\u201d
\n2. No tax dollars were used at all
\n3. No Medicaid money was involved with the donation<\/p>\n

BUT, the leaking of the grand jury report was a crime that did irreparable harm to innocent people. <\/p>\n

This was adult supervision by the Court \u2014 and yet another example of politically-contrived narratives falling apart under proper scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Much of the conference was spent discussing the details of the court order and lambasting the grand jury report, which asserted that $10 million in taxpayer funds had been \u201cmisappropriated\u201d to the Hope Florida Foundation.<\/p>\n

However, DeSantis also took aim at CBS News Miami, which publicly released the details of the leaked report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Taxpayer dollars \u2018misappropriated\u2019 to Hope Florida, grand jury finds]<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want us to send you a copy of this opinion so they will read it and see the results, and how that conflicts with some of the narratives that they\u2019ve been spewing?\u201d DeSantis asked during the conference. \u201cI think you have a responsibility to correct the record.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, though, CBS Miami issued an article<\/a> about the decision to expunge the Hope Florida grand jury report.<\/p>\n

WHAT IS THE HOPE FLORIDA CASE?<\/p>\n

The money came from a settlement of over $67 million with Centene, a health care company accused of overbilling Florida\u2019s children\u2019s health insurance program.<\/p>\n

Instead of returning the full amount to the state, the final agreement sent $57 million to the state and $10 million to Hope Florida \u2014 a state initiative led by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis that aims to connect people in need with resources like charities.<\/p>\n

\"\"After the Centene Corporation acknowledged it overbilled Florida for Medicaid services, it reached a $67 million settlement with the state. Of that $57 million was refunded to the state, with $10 million being donated to the Hope Florida Foundation. (WKMG-TV 2026)<\/p>\n

However, the grand jury said the money was later moved through several organizations and ended up with two political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida. <\/p>\n

The funds were used to oppose Amendment 3<\/a>, a 2024 ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana. The measure ultimately failed to garner enough approval from voters that year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Hope Florida Foundation leaders were found to have given $5 million each to a pair of organizations: “Secure Florida’s Future” and “Save Our Society From Drugs.” Those two groups then sent roughly that same amount of money to a political action committee called “Keep Florida Clean,” which fought against Amendment 3. (WKMG-TV 2026)<\/p>\n

The report named several figures in particular in the case, such as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and then-Attorney General Ashley Moody. However, the grand jury said there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to charge anyone criminally.<\/p>\n

NEW COURT ORDER<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, an appellate court handed down an order to expunge the grand jury report, with several criticisms of the grand jury\u2019s initial presentation.<\/p>\n

In Wednesday\u2019s order, the court provided several key points to justify its decision:<\/p>\n

Unsupported legal conclusions: The grand jury claimed the $10 million was \u201cmisappropriated,\u201d but the cited statutes applied to court settlements or money paid to the state; this settlement preceded any lawsuit, and the money went to Hope Florida instead.<\/p>\n

Condemnation without indictment: The grand jury report portrayed several people and private groups as part of a \u201csophisticated scheme,\u201d even though it found there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to charge anyone. <\/p>\n

Inconsistencies and errors: The order says that the grand jury report suffered from \u201cinternally inconsistent findings.\u201d For example, the report claimed that $800,000 of taxpayer funds was not recovered by the state, though other records show the state actually recovered $800,000 more than the full figure.<\/p>\n

Grand jury overrearch: While a grand jury can investigate executive offices and report on wrongdoing, the grand jury in this case went a step too far by drawing conclusions of \u201cmisappropriation\u201d undertaken in a \u201csophisticated scheme\u201d \u2014 an authoritative judgment of wrongdoing regarding conduct that wasn\u2019t actually illegal.<\/p>\n

The court order also said that the illegal press leak of the grand jury report \u201ccaused irreparable harm,\u201d meaning that full expungement is the only remaining meaningful remedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grand jury\u2019s institutional voice could have been heard had it properly reported on whether public officers were \u2018conducted according to law and good morals\u2019… or merely recommended that the Legislature address the statutory gap it identified,\u201d the order reads. \u201c…The grand jury took none of those proper paths. Instead, it exceeded its authority by accusing people of criminal conduct without indicting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI, Fla. \u2013 After a bombshell appellate court order called for the Hope Florida grand jury report to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28,1384,123,125,124,2159,99,412,232,8527],"class_list":["post-423111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-florida","tag-hope-florida","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-money","tag-politics","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tallahassee","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}