A grand jury in Florida determined that Governor Ron DeSantis "misappropriated" $10 million in public funds by diverting them from a Medicaid agreement to the Hope Florida Foundation and, from there, to political action committees and the Florida Republican Party, according to the report obtained by CBS News Miami.
The money came from a $67 million agreement signed in September 2024 between the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and Centene Corp., the largest Medicaid contractor in the state, over alleged markups on pharmacy benefits.
Those funds were intended to provide medical insurance to low-income children, but $10 million were funneled to the Hope Florida Foundation—the charitable initiative led by First Lady Casey DeSantis—and then hastily distributed among multiple organizations.
From Hope, Florida, five million went to Secure Florida's Future and another five million to Save Our Society From Drugs; both organizations later transferred $8.5 million to the political action committee Keep Florida Clean, chaired by James Uthmeier, who was then the chief of staff to the governor.
Keep Florida Clean distributed $7 million to the Republican Party of Florida and $1.23 million to the Florida Freedom Fund, another committee also led by Uthmeier.
Those resources were used in 2024 to defeat Amendment 3, the citizen initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida, which received 56% of the votes but did not reach the 60% required to amend the state constitution.
The grand jury identified Uthmeier -today the attorney general of Florida and candidate in the November 2026 elections- as the central figure of the scheme.
"We conclude that James Uthmeier, as the chief of staff to the governor at the time of the agreement, was in a position of authority over those involved in the settlement. Testimonies linked him to the direction of the money following its arrival in Hope, Florida. The testimonies also revealed that Uthmeier's Keep Florida Clean committee was the primary recipient of most of the $10 million in public funds," the report states.
The grand jury also concluded that the then attorney general Ashley Moody - appointed by DeSantis in January 2025 to replace Marco Rubio and Republican candidate in the special election on November 3rd - authorized her deputy John Guard to sign the agreement without the necessary due diligence.
Despite the seriousness of the findings, the grand jury declared that there was "not enough evidence to criminally charge anyone," as no witness accepted responsibility for the decision to send the money to Hope Florida.
"Although we cannot prove who is responsible, we can clearly see that taxpayer money has been misused for political purposes, and we would like to see changes to prevent this from happening again," concludes the report.
The document was submitted under seal to the Office of the Secretary of Leon County on January 28, 2026, and remained hidden for seven months, while individuals named in it - including Uthmeier - blocked its disclosure through closed judicial proceedings.
The grand jury also noted that administration officials took advantage of the chaos created by hurricanes Helene and Milton to obscure activities related to the transfer of funds.
DeSantis, Moody, and Uthmeier were not called to testify. On Wednesday, during a press conference, DeSantis stated, "I was not involved in the settlement agreement, but I am very pleased with how everything was handled," and went on to describe the matter as "fraud."
Uthmeier, for his part, had dismissed the case in April as a "trivial matter" and claimed that he had committed no crime.
The Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon described the case as "deep and repugnant corruption" and called for Moody's resignation, while the leader of the state Senate Democratic Caucus, Tracie Davis, announced legislation to close the legal loopholes that allowed the scheme.
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