Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took to social media on Wednesday to respond to a court order which called for the Hope Florida grand jury report to be expunged.
That report — which was leaked to the press back in August — asserts that $10 million of taxpayer funds were “misappropriated” and diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation.
WHAT IS THE HOPE FLORIDA CASE?
The money came from a settlement of over $67 million with Centene, a health care company accused of overbilling Florida’s children’s health insurance program.
Instead of returning the full amount to the state, the final agreement sent $57 million to the state and $10 million to Hope Florida — a state initiative led by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis that aims to connect people in need with resources like charities.
However, the grand jury said the money was later moved through several organizations and ended up with two political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida.
The funds were used to oppose Amendment 3, a 2024 ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana. The measure ultimately failed to garner enough approval from voters that year.
The report named several figures in particular in the case, such as Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and then-Attorney General Ashley Moody. However, the grand jury said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge anyone criminally.
NEW COURT ORDER
On Wednesday, though, an appellate court handed down an order to expunge the grand jury report, with several criticisms of the grand jury’s initial presentation.
In Wednesday’s order, the court provided several key points to justify its decision:
- Unsupported legal conclusions: The grand jury claimed the $10 million was “misappropriated,” but the cited statutes applied to court settlements or money paid to the state; this settlement preceded any lawsuit, and the money went to Hope Florida instead.
- Condemnation without indictment: The grand jury report portrayed several people and private groups as part of a “sophisticated scheme,” even though it found there wasn’t enough evidence to charge anyone.
- Inconsistencies and errors: The order says that the grand jury report suffered from “internally inconsistent findings.” For example, the report claimed that $800,000 of taxpayer funds was not recovered by the state, though other records show the state actually recovered $800,000 more than the full figure.
- Grand jury overrearch: While a grand jury can investigate executive offices and report on wrongdoing, the grand jury in this case went a step too far by drawing conclusions of “misappropriation” undertaken in a “sophisticated scheme” — an authoritative judgment of wrongdoing regarding conduct that wasn’t actually illegal.
The court order also said that the illegal press leak of the grand jury report “caused irreparable harm,” meaning that full expungement is the only remaining meaningful remedy.
[RELATED: Here’s what the Hope Florida grand jury cost Floridians]
“The grand jury’s institutional voice could have been heard had it properly reported on whether public officers were ‘conducted according to law and good morals’… or merely recommended that the Legislature address the statutory gap it identified,” the order reads. “…The grand jury took none of those proper paths. Instead, it exceeded its authority by accusing people of criminal conduct without indicting them.”
DESANTIS’ RESPONSE
After the court order’s release, DeSantis — a major figure connected to the scandal — treated the decision as a victory, further claiming that there was no misappropriation as “a matter of law.”
“This was the judicial equivalent of a death-by-firing squad to the Hope Florida Hoax,” he wrote.
Another hoax bites the dust! The 1st DCA has written the most thorough judicial beat down of anything I’ve ever seen re: the 2024 AHCA pre-suit settlement with Centene.
Botton 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).
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.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) October 7, 2026
[RELATED: How the Hope Florida investigation began and why a grand jury report may have been leaked]
You can read the full court order below: