Gov. Ron DeSantis' office was scheduled to discuss a legal deal. The first lady's Hope Florida got millions afterward,
records show
ORLANDO, Fla. On September 10, 2024, state health officials planned to brief Gov. Ron DeSantis office on a lucrative deal that had been three years in the making. The topic: a $67 million Medicaid settlement that could soon come Floridas way, newly released records show.
The day after that scheduled meeting, the health agencys top lawyer shared a new draft of the agreement one that set off a political firestorm months later in Tallahassee.
The settlement would still be for $67 million, but it would peel off millions for the Hope Florida Foundation, the charity arm of the initiative spearheaded by first lady Casey DeSantis, the documents reveal. Hope Florida ultimately got $10 million, which it funneled to two nonprofit organizations that in turn gave $8.5 million to a political committee controlled by the governors then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier. That committee was set up to defeat a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana.
The finalized agreement, with the Hope Florida Foundation a recipient, became public earlier this year, igniting a bipartisan legislative probe and sparking questions about whether highly regulated Medicaid dollars were illegally used for political purposes. Tallahassee prosecutors opened an investigation in May.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/gov-ron-desantis-office-scheduled-080000348.html
Grifting, it's the Republican way.