Hope Florida: the Trib counts more than $444,000 in public money for private law firms in the grand jury fight, and the order erasing the report is open to rehearing until Thursday

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee ordered the Leon County grand jury report on the Hope Florida money expunged “in its entirety.” The court held that the report “exceeded the grand jury’s authority” and that its disclosure violated section 905.28 of Florida law, “each an independent ground for full expungement,” and reversed Leon Circuit Judge James Lee Marsh’s July 29 order to the extent it had denied full expungement (1st DCA opinion). The opinion is “Not final until disposition of any timely and authorized motion” for rehearing (1st DCA opinion), so the court has ordered the report erased; it has not yet been erased. Rule 9.330(a)(1) allows a rehearing motion “within 15 days” of a decision, a window that closes Thursday, Oct. 22, counting from Oct. 7 (Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure; our arithmetic). As of Oct. 18 we found no report of a rehearing motion, a Florida Supreme Court filing or charges: WUSF’s Hope Florida page lists nothing newer than its Oct. 14 roundup, WGCU’s, WLRN’s and the Florida Trib’s nothing newer than Oct. 9, and Jacksonville Today’s nothing newer than Oct. 14 (WUSF; WGCU; WLRN; Florida Trib; Jacksonville Today). The public cannot check the docket itself: the state’s appellate case search returns the case number for No. 1D2026-2435 with “caseAccess” false and no docket entries (Florida courts, checked Oct. 18). The opinion posted as of Oct. 18 is unchanged since Oct. 8; it carries a header reading “CORRECTED PAGE: 18” and “MAILED: October 8, 2026,” and the passages quoted here appear in it (1st DCA opinion).

The line that will travel is a footnote: “The $10 million provided to Hope Florida in the Centene settlement was never public money. The money neither reimbursed the State for losses from Centene’s overcharges nor ever became the property of the State of Florida, as the transfer of the funds was directly from Centene to Hope Florida” (1st DCA opinion, footnote 6). The same footnote says “the Florida Legislature has not made such action illegal” and that Florida attorneys general from 1996 to 2020 executed 107 settlements directing third-party payments to entities other than the State (1st DCA opinion). Those are the court’s words; the court also says it makes no factual findings of its own (1st DCA opinion, footnote 1).

Your stake: in this settlement, $10,000,000 of $67,048,611.64, or 14.9%, went to the Hope Florida Foundation instead of the state treasury (1st DCA opinion; our arithmetic). The court says the Legislature “has not made such action illegal,” meaning settlements that pay third parties, and that the grand jury’s own recommendations implicitly acknowledge it (1st DCA opinion). Whether the next settlement’s money must reach the state is a question for the Legislature. Meanwhile the fight over the report has its own state tab: the Florida Trib counts more than $444,000 in public money paid to three private law firms hired to represent state officials (Florida Trib), and the governor’s office has $524,912.52 more booked on two orders to two of those firms that run July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, with nothing paid on them as of Oct. 18 (FACTS; our sum).

The money

The opinion lays out the money. “Of Centene’s $67,048,611 settlement, the State received $57,048,611, and a separate $10 million was paid as a third-party donation from Centene to the Hope Florida Foundation, a direct-support organization. The settlement was reached before any civil action was filed in any court. Hope Florida then approved separate $5 million grants to Secure Florida’s Future and Save Our Society From Drugs, both section 501(c)(4) organizations, which in turn donated to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee opposing a proposed recreational-marijuana amendment.” The court says the $10 million “was not a component of any identified Medicaid overcharge” but came from the settlement’s incentive and other-damages component (1st DCA opinion, footnote 1).

State records show where the grant recipients’ money went next. Secure Florida’s Future gave Keep Florida Clean $2,000,000 on Oct. 17, 2024, $1,500,000 on Oct. 24 and $250,000 on Oct. 29, or $3.75 million; Save Our Society From Drugs, of St. Petersburg, gave it $1,600,000 on Oct. 23, $2,650,000 on Oct. 24 and $500,000 on Oct. 28, or $4.75 million. Together that is $8.5 million in six checks (Florida Division of Elections; our sums), matching the Florida Trident’s count (WLRN, Florida Trident). Keep Florida Clean’s state record lists it as a closed political committee with James Uthmeier as chairperson (Florida Division of Elections). Its reports list the two nonprofits as the donors; “Hope Florida appears nowhere in the reports” (WLRN, Florida Trident).

The Trident, reporting alone, adds more. Centene wired the $10 million to Hope Florida on Oct. 4, 2024. Keep Florida Clean’s 2024 tax return, signed by Uthmeier as chairman, reports $26,090,394 in contributions and $12.6 million of political campaign activity, “made up of $11.5 million to the Republican Party of Florida, $2 million of which the party sent back on Oct. 31, and $1.1 million to the Florida Freedom Fund”; Secure Florida’s Future had also given Keep Florida Clean $1.1 million on Sept. 12, 2024, a month before the grant (WLRN, Florida Trident). We have not checked those party figures against state records. Keep Florida Clean had other money first: billionaire Ken Griffin seeded it with $12 million in July 2024, and by September the account was running low; that was separate from, and earlier than, Centene’s $10 million, and the two are not added together here (CBS News Miami, Oct. 11).

The pending money question is the IRS. In a letter dated May 30, 2026, the IRS Whistleblower Office in Ogden, Utah, acknowledged a submission from Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican, which the Trident describes as over the 2024 tax returns of Keep Florida Clean and Secure Florida’s Future; the letter itself names the subject only as “SECU.” The letter is an initial acknowledgment, not notice of an audit referral, and “nothing in the records reviewed by the Trident indicates the IRS has made any finding to date, and no one has been charged over the grants” (WLRN, Florida Trident). On Sept. 29, House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa and Rep. Kelly Skidmore of Boca Raton wrote IRS CEO Frank J. Bisignano asking the agency to “examine whether the three charitable organizations complied with these requirements and accurately reported the funds at issue,” and to assess any taxes owed (Driskell and Skidmore letter; Florida Phoenix via WUSF). Andrade declined to comment on the ruling (News Service of Florida via WUFT).

A criminal deadline is arriving. Section 106.28 of Florida law says actions for violations of the campaign-finance chapter “must be commenced before 2 years have elapsed from the date of the violation” (s. 106.28). The Florida Trident reads that as a deadline to charge: “Violations of Chapter 106, the state’s campaign finance law, must be charged within two years of the date of the violation, which for the October 2024 contributions means by Oct. 17 to Oct. 29, 2026”; that is the Trident’s reading, and “no one has been charged over the grants” (WLRN, Florida Trident). Applied to the six checks the Division of Elections records to Keep Florida Clean, the first deadline, for Secure Florida’s Future’s $2,000,000 of Oct. 17, 2024, fell Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026; the rest fall Friday, Oct. 23 (Save Our Society From Drugs, $1,600,000), Saturday, Oct. 24 (Secure Florida’s Future, $1,500,000; Save Our Society From Drugs, $2,650,000), Wednesday, Oct. 28 (Save Our Society From Drugs, $500,000) and Thursday, Oct. 29 (Secure Florida’s Future, $250,000) (Division of Elections; our arithmetic on the Trident’s reading).

A prosecutor is still looking. Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell said her office is reviewing the $10 million that moved through Hope Florida to political committees, reviewing documents and interviewing witnesses to determine whether the money was spent in Central Florida and could be considered a crime; she has not decided whether to use her own grand jury. Bay News 9 published that at 8:42 a.m. on Oct. 7, before the ruling (Bay News 9). Worrell told the Orlando Sentinel, also before the ruling: “As in any case, if I find criminal wrongdoing that I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, I will file charges. And if I cannot, I won’t” (WDBO, citing the Orlando Sentinel). Central Florida Public Media reported the same day that “A criminal investigation has not been opened by her office,” and quoted Worrell: “The state attorney’s office is reviewing what, if any, crime regarding Hope Florida may have been committed in this jurisdiction” (Central Florida Public Media).

The taxpayers also paid private lawyers in the fight over the report, and the state’s contract records show part of it. The Department of Financial Services’ contract system lists $195,652.50 paid to Boies Schiller Flexner and $111,387.50 to Continental PLLC through the Executive Office of the Governor, $307,040.00 together, in payments recorded from Dec. 15, 2025 (FACTS; our sum). Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart is paid through the Agency for Health Care Administration; the three Gunster orders we re-read on Oct. 18 show $14,061.50, $49,194.00 and $4,590.00 paid, $67,845.50 in all, the latest vouchers recorded Oct. 5, 2026, and the contract system warns that an agency may record the same payments on both a contract and a purchase order, so we print no firm total for Gunster (FACTS; our sum). The Florida Trib, from the same database, reports “more than $444,000” paid to “the law firms hired to represent the state officials,” in contracts “all inked beginning in October 2025” (Florida Trib via Jacksonville Today). The governor’s office engagement letters for Boies Schiller and Continental took effect Oct. 30, 2025; its purchase orders bill partners at $875 an hour and associates at $625, and Gunster’s agency orders bill partners at $850 (FACTS). The governor’s office orders cover legal services “at the direction of the Governor’s General Counsel,” named on this fiscal year’s orders as David Axelman and on an earlier Continental order as Ryan Newman, on behalf of the Executive Office of the Governor, and Gunster’s describe representing the agency in a “Medicaid legal matter”; the records name no individual client (FACTS; Florida Trib). The governor’s office has also booked $524,912.52 on two orders to Boies Schiller ($336,300.00) and Continental ($188,612.52) that run July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, with no payments recorded against them as of Oct. 18 (FACTS; our sum). Two other orders are also coded fiscal 2026-27: a Boies Schiller order covering Dec. 16, 2025, to June 30, 2026, for $138,175.00, with $31,962.50 paid and $106,212.50 unpaid, and a $75,000.00 Gunster order with $4,590.00 paid (FACTS; our arithmetic). The law firms and state agencies did not respond to the Trib’s requests for comment (Florida Trib via Jacksonville Today).

Who the lawyers represented is only partly on the record. Payment records reviewed by the Florida Trident identify one client, Katie Strickland, then DeSantis’s deputy chief of staff, and show the governor’s office approved her legal bills; Boies Schiller partner Jesse Panuccio billed $875 an hour, and Strickland, the administration and Boies Schiller did not respond to the Trident (Florida Trident via WGCU, Sept. 19). The Trident says Continental’s $111,387.50 client is undisclosed and that the invoices bill the work to the Executive Office of the Governor (Florida Trident via WGCU, Sept. 28). The appeals opinion’s counsel block, which covers the appeal and not the payments, lists Christopher Kise of Continental PLLC for Uthmeier, then DeSantis’s chief of staff; Panuccio and David Costello of Boies Schiller Flexner for Strickland; Joseph W. Jacquot of Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart for Andrew Sheeran, then AHCA general counsel; Thomas E. Bishop of Bishop & Page for Jason Weida, then AHCA secretary; and Alan Lawson of Lawson Huck Gonzalez for Secure Florida’s Future and two private individuals we do not name (1st DCA opinion). No record we read says the state paid Uthmeier’s lawyer, and a statewide contract-system search for Bishop & Page returned no results (FACTS). The officials won a confidentiality order on Aug. 25, 2026; the next day, CBS 4 published an unredacted copy of the report (Florida Trib).

The law on paying them points two ways. A 1994 attorney general’s opinion, still on the office’s website, says a state agency “may not pay attorney’s fees for an employee of the agency who is called before a grand jury for investigation involving his or her official duties,” reasoning that a truthful witness is at no risk because of the immunity a witness gets (Florida Attorney General, AGO 94-11); the Trib reads it as barring public money for such lawyers (Florida Trib). A 1996 informal letter from the same office, on a former employee’s fees in a proceeding under section 905.28(1) to “repress or expunge parts of a grand jury presentment,” the statute the appeals court applied here, says “the payment of these expenses is within the authority of the agency head,” while adding that such an action “appears to be in the nature of name clearing and of particular benefit to the individual rather than the state or the agency involved” (Florida Attorney General, 1996 letter).

How it works

The case turned on two grounds. On the first, the court held the report exceeded the grand jury’s authority, and it read the statutes the grand jury invoked as reaching court settlements and money paid to the State: “This matter settled before any civil action was filed. Because no ‘civil action’ had been commenced in court ... no ‘court settlement’ had been reached” (1st DCA opinion, as quoted by News Service of Florida). On the second, the State Attorney distributed the report “by two mass emails to at least forty-nine recipients” on Jan. 28 and 29, 2026, including Andrade, whom the court said was not an individual concerned; “The violation lies in the disclosure itself” (1st DCA opinion). The State Attorney is Jack Campbell (Florida Trident via Creative Loafing Tampa).

The grand jury returned no indictment. Its 116-page report, as the opinion describes it, concluded the money was “misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities” while conceding there was “insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally” (1st DCA opinion). That conclusion is the report’s, and the appeals court has ordered the report expunged. The court also held that the report’s findings about private individuals went beyond the grand jury’s authority (1st DCA opinion); we do not repeat them.

What could still stop it

No one argued for the report. Campbell appealed the partial expungement and then dropped his appeal after the report was published, so “the opinion records no argument from anyone in the report’s defense,” the Florida Trident reported (Florida Trident via Creative Loafing Tampa; 1st DCA opinion). Disclosure: that Trident article is bylined Michael Barfield and The Florida Trident, and it says the intervenors in the circuit case included the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which publishes the Trident, and its executive director, the article’s author; the appeals court reversed the three circuit orders that had required the State Attorney to notify those intervenors of any appeal, “With the State agreeing and the point unopposed” (Florida Trident via Creative Loafing Tampa; 1st DCA opinion). Barfield also wrote the Trident’s Oct. 2 article on the IRS claim cited above (WLRN, Florida Trident). Because Uthmeier was on both sides, the State appeared through Bradford L. Thomas as specially appointed counsel performing the duties of the acting attorney general, with Chief Deputy Solicitors General Jeffrey P. DeSousa and Jason J. Muehlhoff, “lawyers from the office Uthmeier runs,” the Trident notes (1st DCA opinion; Florida Trident via Creative Loafing Tampa); Thomas served on the same appellate court and resigned in February 2025 (Florida Trident). Judge Lance Neff, who wrote the opinion, is a DeSantis appointee who joined the court in March, two months after the report was finalized (News Service of Florida via WGCU; Florida Trident). The court called the report “careless in its grammar, mistaken in its law, and unfaithful to its own record” (Florida Trib via WLRN). Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell, who could have defended its findings, “decided not to participate,” and CBS News Miami’s Jim DeFede writes that the appeal was conducted entirely in secret (CBS News Miami, Oct. 11). Judges M.K. Thomas and Bilbrey concurred, Bilbrey in part and in result (1st DCA opinion). The News Service of Florida notes “The ruling doesn’t mention Uthmeier’s role in the settlement or in how the money was eventually used” (News Service of Florida via WUFT). Nor did the court address that officials in DeSantis’s own administration treated the $10 million like Medicaid money and reimbursed the federal government for its share of the money directed to the Hope Florida Foundation (CBS News Miami, Oct. 11); Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris has said Florida returned it “in an abundance of caution” to “avoid any future liability or litigation” (Florida Phoenix via WLRN). We print no federal-share dollar figure.

Why it matters across Florida

At a Miami news conference Thursday, Oct. 8, Gov. Ron DeSantis called the ruling “probably the biggest judicial smackdown that I have ever seen in my entire career as an elected official” and said, “The kangaroo court is over, and this is the law” (WLRN). He also said “Whoever leaked this report needs to be prosecuted” and “100%. There is no misappropriation. 100%.” The court’s footnote 8 says “The disclosure of the confidential Presentment may itself have violated section 905.27(1) and (2), Fla. Stat. We express no view on the lawfulness of its publication by the press” (1st DCA opinion). DeSantis also called the ruling “death by firing squad” for the report, said the leak “did irreparable harm to innocent people” and that an investigation is “ongoing,” and would not say whether he would suspend Campbell (News Service of Florida via WUSF). Campbell said, “I’m legally prohibited from discussing anything concerning the grand jury” (WCTV). The appeals court has since moved on the leak itself: in an Oct. 9 order made public Sunday, Oct. 18, Judges Lori Rowe, Ross Bilbrey and M. Kemmerly Thomas told Campbell to explain under oath how the unredacted report reached CBS News Miami a day after the court’s Aug. 25 injunction, and to show cause why the court should not appoint a special master to investigate the leak and decide whether the injunction was violated, sanction him over his Aug. 26 email suggesting the leak was tied to the clerks’ transmittal of the appeal record, or refer him to The Florida Bar; Florida Politics reported that the five-day deadline passed last week and that Campbell had made no public response as of Sunday (Florida Politics; Florida’s Voice). Uthmeier said, “I think this is something law enforcement’s looking at,” without naming an agency (CBS12). Asked whether his office could pursue prosecutions, Uthmeier said state attorneys could prosecute a violation that crosses circuit lines, that “it could involve the statewide prosecutor,” and “If somebody shows a violation of law, no matter where it is, I pursue it” (Bay News 9). He also said, “The First District Court of Appeals concluded what we’ve said from the beginning” (CBS News Miami, Oct. 11). Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said, “Erasing the report does not erase those findings” (WLRN) and “Voters will have the final say this November”; the general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3 (CBS News Miami); House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said, “The court opinion doesn’t change the fact that millions of taxpayer dollars wound up in coffers controlled by Uthmeier” (News Service of Florida via WUSF). Keep Florida Clean, the committee Uthmeier led, opposed both 2024 ballot measures, on recreational marijuana and on abortion rights, and both fell short of the 60 percent they needed (News Service of Florida via WUSF; 1st DCA opinion). On Oct. 5, two days before the ruling, Uthmeier said “Absolutely” when asked whether he would approve the $10 million arrangement again, and “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it” (Fox 49 / WEAR). After the appeals court decision was announced, Sen. Rick Scott told Politico there were still “unanswered questions”: “There’s $10 million taken out of the Medicaid program that’s supposed to go to poor kids,” “We ought to get all the money back so that taxpayers are not on the hook,” and “All the facts need to get out” (CBS News Miami, citing Politico). Uthmeier’s deputy chief of staff, Jeremy Redfern, called it a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL VICTORY” (News Service of Florida via WUFT). CBS News Miami’s Jim DeFede reported the same ruling and footnote (CBS News Miami). The campaign has it too. David Jolly, the Democrat running for governor, said, “As governor, we will reopen a fact-finding investigation,” and José Javier Rodríguez, the Democrat running against Uthmeier for attorney general, said, “Rather than rooting out corruption, my opponent is the root of corruption” (WUSF, Oct. 14). WKMG’s Oct. 16 voter guide says Uthmeier, the Republican incumbent, did not respond to its questionnaire and repeated his claim that there was no criminal activity at an unrelated Oct. 5 news conference in Carrabelle; Rodríguez said that if elected he would work to get the “$10 million in Medicaid funding back for Floridians and families in need,” and the guide says his letter asking the administration to preserve Hope Florida records leaves “the door open for a possible lawsuit if he is elected” (WKMG / ClickOrlando). Whatever happens to the report, the mechanism it examined, a settlement that pays a third party instead of the State, is legal in Florida unless the Legislature changes it, by the court’s account (1st DCA opinion).

What to watch

Whether anyone moves for rehearing by Thursday, Oct. 22, and any step toward the Florida Supreme Court. Whether anyone is charged before the remaining deadlines the Trident reads, Oct. 23 to Oct. 29 (Division of Elections; our arithmetic). Worrell’s review, and whether she convenes a grand jury. Payments against the $524,912.52 the governor’s office has booked on its two July 2026 to June 2027 orders (FACTS). The Nov. 3 attorney general’s race. Any word from the IRS on Andrade’s claim or the Driskell and Skidmore letter. Any leak investigation: no agency has been named, but the appeals court is weighing a special master, sanctions and a Florida Bar referral for Campbell (Florida Politics; Florida’s Voice). Whether the Legislature takes up third-party settlement payments: Rep. Kelly Skidmore wants language so “that can never happen again,” and Sen. Don Gaetz, incoming House Speaker Sam Garrison and incoming Senate President Jim Boyd did not respond when Fox 49 asked whether they intend to pursue legislation (Fox 49 / WEAR).

Correction

Correction, Oct. 14: An earlier version of this story said, citing the Florida Trident, that “the opinion records no argument from anyone in the report’s defense,” without disclosing that the Trident’s publisher, the Florida Center for Government Accountability, and its executive director, the article’s author, were intervenors in the circuit-court case. That disclosure now appears with the citation (Florida Trident via Creative Loafing Tampa; 1st DCA opinion).

Correction, Oct. 16: An earlier version of this story said, citing CBS News Miami’s account of the Florida Trident’s reporting, that the governor’s office paid the attorneys who opposed the report $895 an hour, with fees exceeding $330,000. The Trident’s Sept. 28 article says Continental billed $875 an hour and that the two firms paid through the governor’s office had been paid $307,040 together, and state contract records list $875 partner rates and $307,040.00 in payments to those two firms (Florida Trident via WGCU; Florida Department of Financial Services, FACTS).

Correction, Oct. 19, 2026: An earlier version of this story said the two-year window the Florida Trident reads for campaign-finance charges opens Saturday, Oct. 17. The Trident reads the law as a deadline: violations must be charged within two years, which for the October 2024 contributions means by Oct. 17 to Oct. 29, 2026, so the first deadline fell Oct. 17 (WLRN, Florida Trident; Division of Elections).