Florida Grand Jury Finds Ron DeSantis misappropriated $10 million meant for poor children's healthcare

JEN SAKI: David Jolly, there are a lot of threads to pull here.

It sounds like you're ready to pull them.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

DAVID JOLLY: Good to be with you. Thanks, Jen.

Jen Saki reports on Ron DeSantis Medicaid fraud

The way the grand jury report describes it, it sounds a whole lot like a shell game.

Because after Hope Florida got that $10 million, a forensic accountant testified to the grand jury that Hope Florida then gave a $5 million grant to another nonprofit.

A nonprofit called Secure Florida's Future.

Now, within weeks of securing, of getting the grant, Secure Florida's Future then sent $3,750,000 to a political action committee called Keep Florida Clean.

Which just so happened to be run by the guy who was Governor DeSantis's chief of staff at the time, James Osmire.

Now, for what it's worth, the executive director of Secure Florida's Future denied that the money was passed through his organization, telling the grand jury that the grant money mixed with other funds from donors and then was dispersed based on the will of the board.

Now, that might sound kind of plausible, but again, there's more.

Because in another grant, Hope Florida gave the other $5 million to a nonprofit called Save Our Society from drugs.

And the executive director of that nonprofit testified to the grand jury that she received both a text and a phone call from DeSantis's chief of staff, same guy, James Osmire, advising her to apply for that grant.

And wouldn't you know it, within a week of getting that money, her nonprofit gave $4,750,000 to Osmire's political action committee, Keep Florida Clean. See how that all connects?

We tried to do it all in graphic format on the screen for you.

Now, the executive director of that nonprofit told the grand jury that she was not directed by anyone as to how to spend the money, and that she on her own felt that giving the money to DeSantis's chief of staff pack was the best way to advance the mission of her organization. Okay, sure.

But it's pretty wild how all that money appears to have ended up in the same pot there, right?

Pretty wild. A pot that is also connected directly to one of Governor DeSantis's top aides.

And what happened to the money once it got into that pot?

Well, I'm so glad you asked, because again, there's more.

The grand jury found that one of its uses was to lobby against a citizen-led ballot initiative that would have legalized the recreational use of marijuana in Florida.

For whatever reason, fighting against recreational marijuana has been one of Governor DeSantis's hobby horses.

And in the 2024 election, defeating that ballot initiative was clearly one of his very top goals.

So a bunch of money went there.

And a bunch ended up in the coffers of the state Republican Party.

The same month Keep Florida Clean got that money, October 2024, the grand jury's forensic accountant found that it sent $7 million to the Republican Party of Florida.

Again, this money was supposed to go to sick kids, just to come back to the full circle part of this.

And at the same time, the Republican Party of Florida sent Keep Florida Clean $2 million.

So if you do all the math here, and we did, that is a net of $5 million for the Republican Party of Florida.

And then when Keep Florida Clean disbanded a few months later, it put all of its remaining funds, upwards of a million dollars, into another political action committee called the Florida Freedom Fund.

Which, wouldn't you know it, was also chaired by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's chief of staff, James Osmire.

That guy was very busy with pack funding and money moving around.

So just to sum that all up, Ron DeSantis's administration took $10 million that was supposed to give poor kids healthcare, $10 million that was legally owed to the taxpayers of Florida, and according to this grand jury report, funneled that money to political projects and political allies of Ron DeSantis.

Can't make it up.

Now, amazingly, CBS Miami, which did excellent reporting on this, reports that a whole bunch of the people involved in this saga appeared to know how bad it all looked from the start.

As CBS put it, Senteen's lawyers were concerned about the $10 million they were handing to Hope Florida.

Of course they were, especially because it was going to a charity aligned with the governor's wife.

If that is not a freaking red flag, I don't know what is.

The company demanded the settlement include wording that made it clear that they were being directed by Florida's attorney general to do that.

But according to CBS, Florida's attorney general at the time, Ashley Moody, you know who she is, she's running for Senate again, because she was appointed by Ron DeSantis, did not want to be responsible for that.

So she had her chief deputy, a guy named John Guard, sign a revised version of the settlement, revised so that it was a settlement between the company and the state's health agency, not the company and the state's attorney general.

And then the guy who was the head of that state health agency signed it.

The guy who signed that, the guy who was the head of that state health agency at the time, Jason Wieda, DeSantis later made him his chief of staff.

Again, you cannot make this up.

So, as I just alluded to there, last night a local TV news station in Florida broke a story that just absolutely floored me.

CBS News Miami obtained a sealed grand jury report, and this Chris just referenced this, that detailed how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's administration allegedly diverted $10 million from a settlement that was supposed to give poor kids healthcare.

And directed that money through a nonprofit affiliated with the governor's wife, and then into political action committees aligned with DeSantis himself, as well as to the Florida Republican Party.

And then somehow, a bunch of the people involved in making that happen all wound up getting huge promotions from Governor DeSantis.

If this were written into a TV show pilot about a political scandal, as what is those stories lines that would seem too far-fetched to be real.

It might not make it off the cutting room floor.

It is a scandal on top of a scandal on top of a scandal.

But let me just, there are so many layers here.

So let me just start at the beginning of this story.

Because back in 2021, officials in Florida learned that a healthcare company called Senteen may have overbilled the state for prescription drugs for kids on Medicaid. Definitely bad, right?

The company was actually alleged to have overbilled a bunch of states to the tune of nearly a billion dollars.

So some states sued the company for Medicaid fraud and started winning back their money in settlements, though the company did not admit guilt.

Ohio settled for $88 million, Mississippi settled for $55 million, Indiana got $66 million, Massachusetts got $14 million, and California got $215 million.

But for whatever reason, Florida ignored the case for years.

The company even sent Florida a draft settlement saying they would repay the state $67 million.

They sent that all the way back in 2021, according to CBS Miami in their reporting.

And Governor DeSantis's administration just sat on it, not doing a thing, until two months before the 2024 election.

So yeah, three years later.

Then suddenly, there's a whole lot of urgency in the DeSantis world.

As CBS Miami put it, in early September 2024, state officials contacted Senteen and said they wanted to immediately resolve the dispute.

Only this time, the state had a new condition.

Years after the Senteen had, years after Senteen, the company had offered to pay the state $67 million, the grand jury report shows that Florida officials now wanted that payment split into two chunks. $57 million repaid to the state of Florida, and $10 million donated to a nonprofit called the Hope Florida Foundation.

Which just so happens to be the nonprofit set up to help fund the social services initiatives of Governor DeSantis's wife, Casey DeSantis.

You know who she is, she's shown right there on your screen.

Now, if that weren't completely shady enough, there is more, there is a lot more.

The settlement gave Senteen more than a year to pay the state its $57 million, but it gave the company a much shorter timeline to pay the nonprofit tied to DeSantis's wife its $10 million.

It had to deposit that cash within just seven days.

Remember, they ignored this for years.

And just 25 days after that nonprofit, the Hope Florida Foundation, got that $10 million, it was all gone.

The attorney general's top deputy who reconfigured the settlement, John Guard, DeSantis appointed him as a judge on Florida's appeals court.

The attorney general herself, I already mentioned her, Ashley Moody.

Well, DeSantis appointed her to the US Senate to take the seat left vacant by Marco Rubio when he joined the Trump administration.

And DeSantis's old chief of staff, James Osmire, very busy with PAC moving around money.

The guy who ends it up with all of that money in his political action committees, DeSantis appointed him to be Florida's attorney general when Ashley Moody left to become senator.

Seems like Governor DeSantis has been pretty great for all of their careers, helping him out, pretty good for them.

Now, I should note that the grand jury found insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally, because they say nobody will take responsibility for the original decision to give $10 million to Hope Florida.

And almost all the folks involved here deny they did anything wrong.

Governor DeSantis denied wrongdoing during a press conference today, calling the investigation a hoax. Of course he did.

Florida attorney general Osmire also denied wrongdoing today, calling CBS's reporting a quote, "Democrat which hoax?" Okay.

I believe the word you were looking there for was hunt, but I digress.

The now senator Ashley Moody said today that reports on the subject were misrepresenting the facts and said that her old office had no knowledge of how the funds would be spent once they were first deposited. Okay.

Jason Wieda did not give a comment to CBS Miami for the reporting, and John Guard told CBS Miami that he couldn't comment further on grand jury proceedings as a sitting judge.

And went on to say that it was under Florida law, that under Florida law, it was unlawful to disclose grand jury proceedings.

That was actually a very common refrain, is that that is the real takeaway here.

Florida attorney general Osmire's deputy chief of staff also told CBS Miami that unauthorized disclosure of grand jury proceedings was a crime.

And when pressed about the issue today, Governor DeSantis went so far as to say that the disclosure of the grand jury report was the only crime he saw here.

What's your reaction to the grand jury report into the diversion of Medicaid funds for political purposes?

Well, the only crime that was apparent was whoever leaked the grand jury report. Okay.

I don't know about you, but I am a whole lot more concerned with the potential misuse of $10 million taxpayer dollars than I am with the leaking of the report that uncovered it.

That links to a lot of people in the DeSantis orbit.

Now, earlier this year, President Trump tasked Vice President JD Vance with establishing a task force to find and eliminate fraud in America's public benefit systems.

Since then, Vance has been dining out on the premise that he is an anti-fraud crusader.

He has demonized entire populations of immigrants, painting whole groups as fraudsters.

He has repeatedly tried to link the names of Democratic lawmakers with the word fraud, however he can.

Well, now in Florida, state grand juries pointing to what appears to be some very real massive fraud, $10 million from a Medicaid settlement, money that was supposed to be used to provide health insurance for poor children, instead allegedly being funneled into the political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida.

Back in May, Vance held an anti-fraud press conference in which he said explicitly that this was the kind of thing he was hunting for.

And that no matter who was involved, no matter their political positions, he would prosecute them.

As much as we care about protecting these programs, we also care about ensuring that federal and state officers aren't violating the law.

And if they are violating the law, then of course we have to prosecute them.

That's an important part of equal justice under law. Sounds good, JD Vance.

Now, I should tell you, we reached out to the vice president's office for comment on today's story out of Florida.

We have yet to hear back.

So with the federal government seeming to turn a blind eye here, even the anti-fraud crusader there you see on your screen, how does the state of Florida actually get justice?

Joining me now is David Jolly, a former Republican congressman, now the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida.

And just today, I should note the Cook Political Report moved his race from solid Republican to likely Republican.

That is certainly the direction you want when you are running for office.

All right, David, this story is crazy. It is bonkers.

I just did my best to summarize the funneling of $10 million to Republican causes that was supposed to go to Hope Florida.

But this completely crazy level of corruption is happening in a state you were hoping to lead.

What do you think is most important for people just tuning into the story, trying to digest it to really understand?

DAVID JOLLY: Sure. Yeah, let's simplify it.

Our governor, our US senator, and our attorney general were involved in an orchestrated scheme to launder money from the state Medicaid program to the First Lady's nonprofit, and then pass it through to political committees to benefit the governor.

It's money laundering. It's money laundering.

And as a result of all of them colluding, then what the governor did is he promoted the people who architected it.

Our attorney general at the time, Ashley Moody, became a United States senator by appointment.

The governor's chief of staff became our state attorney general by appointment.

A deputy attorney general was promoted to a judgeship.

And part of the frustration of the grand jury, if you go through the report, is they say, nobody would really cooperate with us.

Everybody pointed at somebody else.

And most of them were lawyers who could be shielded by the practice of law, and therefore were unable to recommend charges.

Which is why as a candidate for governor, I have said that we should reopen the Hope Florida investigation, get the additional facts under an independent counsel, a special counsel, or at least an office that's not going to be implicated in the actual alleged crimes themselves.

And honestly, Jen, this doesn't have to be a partisan moment.

I'm asking Byron Donald, the Republican nominee, to commit to the same thing.

Reopen the Hope Florida investigation so that Florida's voters can get a clear picture of how money was laundered from needy families in need of healthcare into the political ambitions of our governor.

There's so much to dig into here.

Let me start, and I want to talk about the investigation you've called for reopening it.

By just asking you, I mean, as you just said, the grand jury came back and basically said, and this is a quote, "We know taxpayer money was misused, but nobody will take responsibility."

Which I think to a layperson or a person reading it like myself, that sounds crazy.

A separate Florida statehouse investigation went nowhere after the DeSantis administration refused to cooperate.

A federal investigation reportedly went nowhere.

How do you think if you reopen this or your plans to do that, how will it be different?

How can you pursue this in a different way to actually get cooperation, get more information?

Well, clearly the investigation was obstructed because the people being investigated hold all the power.

The governor, our attorney general, a US senator, and then as you saw, most of the people interviewed were lawyers who were shielding themselves.

And so my intent would be to open up a fact-finding investigation under an independent office, independent counsel, or I will do it through the governor's office to pursue the truth.

I mean, what the grand jury report said is that it is clear the spirit of the law was broken, and we presume that the actual law was broken.

That's essentially what the grand jury report says.

But we're unable to recommend charges because nobody will cooperate with us.

Look, perhaps a fact-finding mission goes nowhere, but I think the people of Florida deserve to see additional information.

When I got into this race, Republicans control a super majority in Tallahassee.

They have for about 30 years, Jen.

And a leading Democratic legislator said, "You know why Republicans keep doing the things they're doing?

Because they can get away with it."

And today that's what I was reminded of, that a year ago a Democratic leader said to me, "Republicans in Tallahassee do this because they can get away with it.

They shouldn't be able to get away with it."

And as governor, I'm going to make sure they won't.

There's a piece of this that just baffles me, to be honest.

I mean, a lot of it baffles me and rages me.

But according to the reporting, at least a portion of the money was funneled toward defeating a ballot initiative on marijuana, which I know Governor DeSantis spoke out against.

It was a priority of his. Why did they care about that so much?

And what questions do you have?

Because some of the money also just went to the Republican Party of Florida.

What questions do you have about how this money was used and why?

Yeah, so this opens up one of the most damning parts of the grand jury report.

So understand there was a Medicaid settlement, and instead of putting all the money into Medicaid, the scheme was to move $10 million through the First Lady's nonprofit, Hope Florida.

That's what's called Hope Florida.

But then the scheme involved two separate applications of $5 million each.

Applications to Hope Florida for $5 million in grant funding that the grand jury found the applications themselves mischaracterized the intent of the money.

It's absolute fraud.

And what was happening in the state of Florida was that the state had a ballot initiative to consider whether or not to, by constitutional amendment, allow recreational marijuana.

The governor wanted to defeat it.

So they passed the money through the First Lady's nonprofit and put it into a fund to convince Florida's voters not to go along with recreational marijuana.

Look, the governor has every right to engage in politicking in the state of Florida.

He could even raise money for his own campaign to defeat the constitutional amendment.

In this case, he stole Medicaid money that was intended for families in need of healthcare and used it to fund his own political interests and did it through what the grand jury considered an orchestrated sophisticated scheme.

Look, when you smell corruption, you got to go after it.

And the grand jury was trying to do that.

And the people who are standing in the way now occupy our US Senate seat, our state attorney general seat, and our governorship.

And I think this needs an independent look.

That piece you've touched on a few times, and it is a piece of this that is absolutely bonkers, is that the fact that everyone involved here got some sort of a promotion.

There's so many layers of this, but I mean, and one of those people is running for Senate.

I mean, they're all, to your point, in higher positions now.

What questions do you have for all of them?

How do you think this could impact some of the people who are currently on the ballot, including Ashley Moody?

Yeah, now the appointments make sense, Jen, because Ashley Moody, as a state attorney general, had to sign off on this corrupt deal.

And even today she said, "I didn't know how the money was going to be used."

Well, then that's malfeasance in the way you administer your office.

The governor's chief of staff was clearly at the intersection of how all this came together.

And so after it happened and after people started investigating it, the governor appointed his chief of staff to be the state attorney general that would have the law enforcement purview over any investigations like this.

And so the people who were involved were promoted to places of further power, obstructing what would essentially be a grand jury investigation that could not get to the bottom of the truth because nobody would cooperate.

The bottom line is that Medicaid money intended for needy families was stolen to further the political interests of the governor, and the First Lady's charity was used to launder that money.

That is corrupt. That is corrupt. Everybody understands that.

The Medicaid money, healthcare money intended for families and children was stolen to benefit the governor, and it was architected by our current US senator, by our current attorney general, and our current governor.

It's absolute corruption.

And look, if I'm wrong about that, the investigation will prove I'm wrong.

But I think what people across Florida know right now is that Republicans are getting away with it because they can, and they want a governor who's going to say, "We're not going to let this happen anymore."

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