ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Department of Child Welfare has written to a Florida newspaper to tell foster parents “stop, stop” for a story about a nonprofit organization related to the wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis, the subject of the investigation.
The Orlando Sentinel received a letter from the state’s state department of children and families on Friday, with its highest official appointed by the governor. The letter allegedly used the threat to make a negative statement about the Hope Florida Foundation when a newspaper reporter contacted the welfare nonprofit organization behind the signature initiative of Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.
“We have stopped and stopped the above threats from these families,” the DCF letter said.
Orlando Sentinel executive editor Roger Simmons said the agency’s characterization of reporters’ actions was “completely false.” According to Sentinel, stories that have not yet been published were considering grants that Hope Florida distributed to organizations, families and individuals.
“We stand by the story, we reject any state’s attempts to chill free speech and infringe on our initial right to correct the issue,” Simmons said in an email.
DCF on Monday did not provide immediate responses to inquiries regarding the letter. DCF posted a suspension and supposed letter on social media on Friday, saying Florida supported foster parents with donations to fix their homes following last year’s hurricane.
The letter is attempting to intimidate the Sentinel to publish news that Florida’s previous detention efforts are usually unconstitutional, according to University of Florida law professor Clay Calvert, who is a senior non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
If he was a Sentinel lawyer, Calvert said he would tell the agency “to smack the sand.”
“The DCF can send all ceasefire and abolition letters, but the Sentinel is not obligated to follow any of them,” he said. “This is trying to silence negative reports before they come out.”
Tallahassee prosecutors have launched an investigation related to the Hope Florida Foundation. The public records custodian in Jack Campbell’s office of the Second Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office confirmed the existence of an “open, ongoing investigation” last month in response to a record request from the Associated Press. This study was first reported by the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times.
DeSantis’s own party’s Republican state lawmakers have scrutinized the hopes of Florida and its nonprofit foundations, giving two nonprofits $10 million from the state’s Medicaid settlement. These groups gave millions to the political committee chaired by the then head of staff at DeSantis, who campaigned against the failed referendum on recreational marijuana.
In April, Republican Rep. Alex Andredo concluded an investigation that he was leading Florida Hope and said he would leave the FBI and the Justice Department to the rest of the investigation, but there is no official evidence that neither of them is doing so. Andredo argues that the flow of funds from the foundation to nonprofit organizations, and the flow of funds to political committees, amounts to “conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.”
The governor dismissed Hope Florida’s investigation as a politically motivating smear for his wife, whom he floats as a potential successor when he left in 2026.
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