DeSantis and Hope Florida

[Jimmy Higgins]

So the First Court of Appeals has freed DeSantis of the tiny scandal of steeling $10 million from the state (to fund ads against legalizing marijuana) by saying it wasn't state money, so the Grand Jury's opinion wasn't relevant.

Both the grand jury and the legislative committee that would later investigate this in 2025 concluded that it was the plan from the very outset to get that $10 million from the Centene settlement into the DeSantis/Uthmeier PAC, Keep Florida Clean, by using the Hope Florida Foundation as the conduit.

The reason this was necessary, they argue, is that DeSantis and his staff knew they couldn't tell Centene to send the money directly to Keep Florida Clean, so it was first sent to the Hope Florida Foundation – a 501C3 nonprofit.

The foundation was set up to help fund First Lady Casey DeSantis's Hope Florida initiative. The idea behind Hope Florida was to move individuals away from government assistance and instead encourage them to receive help from religious-based organizations. 

But as a 501(c)3, they are prohibited by federal tax law from funding political campaigns, so they couldn't send the money directly to Keep Florida Clean. Instead, it would have to go through the two 501C4s – Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida's Future. Both organizations submitted $5 million grant proposals to the Hope Florida Foundation, and the two grants were immediately approved without any scrutiny.

Centene overbilled by $57 million, An agreement was made for Centene to write two checks, one for $57 million to Florida and one for $10 million to the Hope Florida foundation, in a maneuver that screams fraud. But I guess not.