Judge denies GOP request for emergency order to block political ad

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(The Center Square) – A judge has denied the Florida GOP’s emergency motion to ban a political ad discussing $10 million in Medicaid settlement funds distributed to the Hope Florida Foundation.

The ad is based on a leaked grand jury report that Judge James Lee Marsh ordered expunged.

The ad states taxpayer money that was first given to Hope Florida, which is run by Gov. Ron DeSantis’s wife, Casey DeSantis, was then given to a political committee controlled by Attorney General James Uthmeier.

DeSantis and Uthmeier don’t deny the disbursement of the funds, but argue that what was done with the money was legal and that the only crime was committed by whoever leaked the grand jury report.

When Marsh called for the expungement of the grand jury report, he said that while people may question “the propriety of settlements with payments to third parties,” what was done was not illegal.

When the ad aired, the Florida GOP filed a lawsuit to get stop it from airing. The suit names 11 TV stations along with the Florida Democratic Party and three statewide Democratic candidates, according to Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried.

“They’re trying to get a judge to yank our ad without giving us an opportunity to respond, and they’re threatening TV stations with criminal charges just for airing it, all to keep Floridians from hearing the facts,” said Fried. “Republicans have spent more time and more of your money hiding this than explaining it. Running to court every time they face an uncomfortable question isn’t leadership. It’s a cover-up with a filing fee. We won’t be intimidated, and we’ll keep talking about Hope Florida, James Uthmeier, and the questions Republicans refuse to answer.”

DeSantis has maintained the scandal that ensued from the grand jury report was a hoax that dragged in “a lot of really good people.” He said there were no tax dollars used at all and that no Medicaid money was involved with the donation to Hope Florida.

“Bottom line = no misappropriation by AHCA as a matter of law (Which was obvious to anyone with half a brain or not blinded by a political agenda),” DeSantis wrote on X. “The Court ordered the complete and total expungement of the illegally leaked Tallahassee grand jury report. This was the judicial equivalent of a death-by-firing squad to the Hope Florida Hoax.”