A Florida appeals court has expunged the leaked Leon County grand-jury report that accused the DeSantis administration of a "sophisticated scheme" to move $10 million in Medicaid settlement funds through the Hope Florida Foundation into PACs opposing the marijuana amendment, the Miami Herald reports.
Governor DeSantis took a victory lap at a Miami press conference, calling the ruling a "complete and total" vindication. His critics see it very differently: Democrats, including the challenger to Attorney General James Uthmeier, are already using the case to attack Republicans a month before the midterm elections.
The underlying questions about how Medicaid settlement money was handled have not disappeared with the report — they have simply moved from a courtroom document into the arena of campaign advertising. With four weeks until Election Day, Hope Florida is now a partisan cudgel.
