TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling on Florida law enforcement to bring criminal charges against anyone who leaked the Hope Florida grand jury document.
“I want them to be able to figure out who leaked this, and I want them to bring criminal charges,” DeSantis said at an unrelated Thursday news event, demanding prosecutions one day after an appeals court issued a blistering rebuke of the leaked report and ordered it wiped from the record.
DeSantis said not only is the leak of the grand jury’s presentment a violation of state law, but some of the people castigated in the report were staffers and employees of nonprofits, not public officials.
“To impugn them was totally contrary to law,” DeSantis said.
The grand jury report said the DeSantis administration “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer money for political purposes, but jurors declined to recommend criminal charges against anyone, citing lack of clarity from witnesses. The DeSantis administration has disputed the grand jury’s conclusions, and the appellate court ruling Wednesday said the $10 million was “never public money” and the transfer was a lawful executive action.
Leaking a county-level grand jury report could constitute a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida, which is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
Although no official investigation has been announced, Attorney General James Uthmeier said Thursday that his office could look into the leak if it crossed multiple jurisdictions — which he said is “very possible.”
The leaked report was first obtained and published by CBS Miami.
“If it crosses over circuit lines, which is very possible given CBS Miami engaging in perpetrating fraud, then it could involve the statewide prosecutor,” Uthmeier said during a Miami news event. Uthmeier did not specify what “fraud” he is alleging.
DeSantis’ comments came a day after he and his administration cheered the release of the ruling by a three-judge panel that said the grand jury presentment must be fully expunged from the record. That ruling came after a monthslong legal battle to try to keep some or all of the report from the public.
Judge Lance Neff, a DeSantis appointee, authored the 1st District Court of Appeal opinion. In it, he suggested that the state attorney involved in the grand jury proceedings, Leon County’s Jack Campbell, had violated Florida’s requirement to keep most grand jury findings secret by sending the document to people who weren’t authorized to receive it. That included a recipient mistakenly included “who had nothing to do with the proceeding,” the court said.
DeSantis declined to say Thursday whether he would consider suspending Campbell for alleged violations of the law.
