Posted on 04/16/2025 8:11:06 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
The Florida charity created by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration didn’t keep meeting minutes, had no budget or bylaws, didn’t file its tax returns and asked few questions before steering $10 million to two dark money groups, the board’s chairperson told a House committee on Tuesday. The Hope Florida Foundation — created to support first lady Casey DeSantis’ top initiative — doesn’t seem to have obeyed any of the requirements in state law governing its ethics, oversight or governance, lawmakers found. “In recent weeks, the public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made,” said the board’s chairperson, Joshua Hay, the CEO of a company that does tens of millions of dollars in business with the state. “There are lapses in reporting procedures.” The state-created charity has had three meetings since it was created in 2023 but only recorded the minutes from one: the October meeting in which it accepted a $10 million donation by Centene, the state’s largest Medicaid contractor. Centene said it was “directed” by Florida officials in a legal settlement to donate the money after it notified regulators it had overbilled the state. The $10 million was by far the largest donation in Hope Florida Foundation’s history, Hay said. Within days, the foundation received a request from a dark money group affiliated with the Florida Chamber of Commerce requesting a $5 million grant. Hay said he thought the money would go to a “public awareness campaign” to help Hope Florida, an initiative created by Casey DeSantis to remove Floridians from government assistance. The grant was approved during a 20-minute meeting that was never publicized. In the days after the meeting, a second dark money organization, St. Petersburg-based Save Our Society from Drugs, also requested and received $5 million through a similar grant.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
The brazen disregard for any fiduciary control of a government-directed windfall is not just shocking, it's criminal.
Here's what pops put in reading this:
“In recent weeks, the public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made,” said the board’s chairperson, Joshua Hay, the CEO OF A COMPANY THAT DOES TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN BUSINESS WITH THE STATE.
[emphasis added by me]
DeSantis is not in the league of the Clinton or Biden family.
Before you start playing these games you really need friendly local media.....
Ugly all around.
She’s the driver in this political marriage—and ugly in deed and motivation.
Just imagine what the LSM and Dems would have done with this if he was president. It would have been another impeachment which would have given all the government to the dems.
We literally dodged a bullet not picking Desactimonious.
This is really bad for him.
The DeSantises aren’t going to advance their careers based on, “Sure, they’re sleazy, but at least they’re not the Clintons or Bidens.”
The strongest reaction to this scandal (yes, I think it’s a scandal) is from Republican legislators, not the local media.
DeSantis is not in the same league as the Clintons or Bidens....
We got them now. The question we demand answers to is “what did Trump know and when did he know it”?/S
“Mistakes” = Stealing money.
Anti-RDS FReepers are happy today.
I’ve worked to get him elected. I am not happy.
Might be interesting
The campaign finance SuperPac fiasco was what soured me on DeSantis as presidential material.
That was brutal blunder after brutal blunder—all unforced errors.
If this was a Democrat administration the FEC would have found some teeth and used DeSantis as a chew toy.
—
Ref:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/16/desantis-super-pac-collapse/
Seems like the current Florida Attorney General was the main beneficiary of the $10M designated to Desantis wife’s charity Hope Florida...not a good look.
Thanks! I’ll definitely tune in.
Thanks for reminding people that desantis planned and committed a crime in deliberately illegally transferring $83 million in campaign donations from his governors’ campaign funds to his presidential one.
Casey DeSantis is a cautionary tale of how marrying the wrong woman can do even the best men in.
Anti-RDS FReepers are happy today.
*****************
“JD Vance says hello!”
desantis now has created an office within the Florida state government in support of casey's charity
Today, Governor Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis established the Hope Florida Office within the Executive Office of the Governor to oversee and administer the growing Hope Florida Pathway to Prosperity Initiative
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