DeSantis revels in ‘the biggest judicial smackdown that I have ever seen’

Filed 57m ago · Via Florida Phoenix · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Maple Leaf Rag

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The White House · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A Florida appeals court ordered the Hope Florida grand jury report expunged, ruling it should never have been released before named parties got a chance to contest it, a technical finding about confidentiality procedure rather than a verdict on the underlying allegations. Governor Ron DeSantis declared it the biggest judicial smackdown of his career and demanded prosecution of whoever leaked the report to CBS Miami.

The report had alleged $10 million was misappropriated from a Medicaid overbilling settlement and funneled through nonprofits into a campaign against a marijuana legalization amendment. Attorney General James Uthmeier, named critically in the report and present for the news conference, said law enforcement is looking at the leak.

Judge Neff's opinion found the money was never legally the state's since it was paid before any civil action was filed, making the settlement payment to a third party not illegal even if some 'question the propriety.' The Florida Democratic Party noted the ruling erases the report, not what the grand jury found it to contain.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

When a man throws a parade because the judge said the paperwork came out too early, you can guess he wasn't counting on anybody reading the paperwork. Expunging a report is like sweeping the mud off the porch before company comes. The boots that tracked it in are still sitting by the door, and so is the $10 million question. Chasing whoever told CBS Miami is a fine hobby, but it doesn't change what the grand jury said it found.

Source: Read the original at Florida Phoenix → Scored: Maple Leaf Rag · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0