I put off writing about this, because it’s so complicated and my brain is on constant overload FOR SOME REASON. But it’s sounding more and more like Ron and Casey might actually have to pay for their sins this time, so I thought you’d be interested! (It will be helpful if you watch the above video.) Via The Florida Phoenix:
The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times obtained a copy of an early iteration of the settlement agreement between Centene and the state that confirms the $10 million “donation” Centene made to the Hope Florida Foundation represented the return of taxpayer dollars stemming from Medicaid overpayments.
DeSantis administration officials have told the House that the money wasn’t taxpayer dollars.
Moreover, the governor has said the accusations of wrongdoing at Hope Florida are partisan in nature as First Lady Casey DeSantis is mulling a potential gubernatorial run to replace her husband, who is hitting his term limits.
Hope Florida is the non-profit headed up by Casey “Lady MacBeth” DeSantis, who seems to want to run for governor now that husband Ron has term limits. Now, what seems to have happened is, an assorted cast of Republican miscreants from the DeSantis orbit collaborated to move $10 million of that Centene payment to Hope Florida and then, almost immediately, to two PACs pushing to help Ron DeSantis claim victory in stopping recreational marijuana.
Now, here’s the thing. When Ron looked like a possible president, he could do no wrong — and the Florida legislature couldn’t do enough for him. But times have changed, and this Friday, the state house boys have a long list of witnesses to grill — including the recently appointed Attorney General, James Uthmeier. (One of the major players planning to take Ron and Casey down is Rep. Don Gaetz, father of Matt. Ha, ha!)
And the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson is absolutely gleeful:
The words being whispered in town are “FBI,” “jail,” and “RICO.”
You’ve likely never heard of Uthmeier, but he’s one of the DeSantis goons noted for loyalty over any other quality, and DeSantis tends to plop him into jobs where he needs a hatchetman who won’t question orders. He’s a peach:
“The state’s new A.G., James Uthmeier, has a history of thumbing his nose at the laws he’s now supposed to enforce. He tried to hide his cell phone records last year, prompting a judge to order him to turn them over. And now it appears that Uthmeier was involved in the scandal unfolding around Hope Florida, a program that was supposed to help Floridians in need but instead seems to have been used to funnel money to DeSantis’s cronies.”
DeSantis thought he was above all this. He thought he was the golden boy who could do no wrong. DeFuture.
Now? He held a desperate, cranky, and screechy presser this week where he tried to assert that Tallahassee, a city and a political space utterly dominated by the GOP since 1994, somehow made far-right Republicans like the Speaker of the House and the Senate President into Soros-controlled deep state actors conspiring with the liberal media.
This assertion is as insane as it sounds. The man making it was someone, once upon a time.