Here's something every conservative should be able to agree on: when a politician steals from taxpayers to run a political campaign, it doesn't matter what party they're in.
Florida is about to find out whether that principle holds.
A grand jury is meeting in secret in Tallahassee right now – and the man at the center of it is Florida's current Attorney General, James Uthmeier, Trump's endorsed candidate for a full term in 2026.
What Actually Happened
In September 2024, Florida settled a $67 million Medicaid overbilling dispute with Centene Corporation, the state's largest Medicaid contractor.
Every other state that settled with Centene put out a press release.
Florida didn't.
Rep. Alex Andrade – a Republican from Pensacola who chaired the House investigation – said lawmakers only learned about it because someone slipped them a single set of Hope Florida Foundation meeting minutes.
"We would've never even known about this settlement if we hadn't gotten our hands on one set of minutes," Andrade said.
Hidden inside the settlement was a $10 million direct payment to the Hope Florida Foundation, a nonprofit tied to First Lady Casey DeSantis' welfare assistance initiative.
Within days, the Foundation wired $5 million each to two nonprofits – Secure Florida's Future and Save Our Society from Drugs.
https://twitter.com/KickboxerEsq/status/2023448726275227672?s=20
Those groups then funneled $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee chaired by Uthmeier, who was at the time Governor DeSantis' chief of staff.
Keep Florida Clean ran the campaign that defeated Amendment 3, Florida's 2024 recreational marijuana ballot initiative.
DeSantis called the $10 million the "cherry on top" of the settlement.
Uthmeier called it a legal "sweetener."
Andrade called it money laundering and wire fraud.
The Investigation That Wouldn't Die
The Republican-controlled Florida House launched a formal probe in April 2025.
It ended abruptly when key witnesses – including Hope Florida Foundation attorney Jeff Aaron – refused to testify.
Andrade shut it down and forwarded his findings to the FBI and the Department of Justice.
His conclusion, stated publicly: "I am firmly convinced that James Uthmeier and Jeff Aaron engaged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud and that several parties played a role in the misuse of $10 million in Medicaid funds."
Uthmeier denied wrongdoing.
DeSantis called the probe a "smear."
The story didn't go away.
In October 2025, State Attorney Jack Campbell convened a grand jury in Tallahassee to examine whether the Hope Florida Foundation's spending violated the law.
This week, the Florida Trident reported that a presentment has been returned – and the State Attorney's Office confirmed it exists by invoking grand jury secrecy statutes when asked to produce it.
Criminal defense attorney Andrea Flynn Mogensen, an expert in public records law, put it plainly: if no presentment existed, there would be nothing to withhold.
Something is sealed in Tallahassee right now. And the people at the center of it aren't talking.
116-0
This week, the Florida House passed HB 593 unanimously.
The bill bans state agencies from directing settlement funds to third parties as a condition of any settlement, and requires written notification to legislative leadership – including minority leaders and the Attorney General – within 10 days of any settlement.
Andrade was direct on the House floor: "We had no idea for months that $10 million had been improperly diverted to James Uthmeier's PAC."
House Democrat Leader Fentrice Driskell said she went back through her own records when the scandal broke and found nothing – even though minority leaders are legally entitled to settlement notifications.
No Republican other than Andrade spoke during the debate.
It passed 116-0 in under ten minutes.
Every Republican in the Florida House voted to ban exactly what the DeSantis administration did.
The problem is the Senate.
Companion bill SB 802 has not been called for a committee vote.
Andrade, who is term-limited, said: "If it is not passed in both chambers this year, my hope is that it comes back next year."
The Principle Is Simple
Conservatives have spent years – rightly – furious at politicians who treat public money like a personal slush fund.
This is that.
Medicaid is a federal-state program funded by taxpayers.
When that money gets diverted through a charity, bounced through dark-money nonprofits, and dropped into a political campaign, that's not a technicality.
Andrade's accounting puts the actual loss to Florida taxpayers closer to $16 million – because for every Medicaid dollar diverted, the state still owed the federal government its 57% matching share.
Payment records confirm it: Florida sent $38 million to the federal government based on the full $67 million settlement, not the $57 million DeSantis publicly claimed, meaning the $10 million was always Medicaid money.
The Senate will decide in the coming weeks whether Florida closes this loophole or leaves it open for the next politician who decides the rules don't apply to them.
That politician might be a Republican.
It might be a Democrat.
Either way, your tax dollars are the ones at risk.
Sources:
- Gabrielle Russon, "House passes reforms after Hope Florida scandal," Florida Phoenix, February 25, 2026.
- Christine Sexton, "DeSantis administration confirms it reimbursed feds for $10M Hope Florida payment," Florida Phoenix, February 23, 2026.
- Florida Trident, "Grand jury returns presentment in Hope Florida investigation," WGCU News, February 25, 2026.
- Florida House of Representatives, HB 593 Bill Analysis, Florida Senate, January 29, 2026.
- WUSF News, "Hope Florida: Timeline of how DeSantis-backed state charity was accused of wrongdoing," April 28, 2025.
- WUSF News, "Inside the grand jury probe of the Hope Florida Foundation," October 24, 2025.
- Skyler Swisher and Jeffrey Schweers, "Records provide new details on Hope Florida scandal," Orlando Sentinel, August 15, 2025.
