Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) is celebrating being exonerated from complaints directed to the Florida Commission on Ethics. The complaint dealt with Mayor Suarez’s attendance at sporting events, which included Formula 1 races and the World Cup in Qatar.
The complaint was filed by Leftist activist Thomas Kennedy, who questioned how Mayor Suarez was able to attend the events and if he had complied with Florida ethics law requiring the disclosure of the source of gifts.
Kennedy, who is considered a Left-Wing aggitator by many Republicans, appears to have solely based his complaints on the reporting of the Miami Herald;
The Florida Commission on Ethics released a report this week regarding the investigation, and they found that there was no probable cause that Suarez violated state statutes “by accepting a thing of value given to influence a vote or other action in which the Respondent was expecting to participate in an official capacity.”
In response to the report, Mayor Suarez’s office took to social media to release a statement, celebrating the exoneration.
“Today’s bipartisan and unanimous exoneration provides irrefutable proof that the vicious and politically motivated attacks on Mayor Suarez’s character are completely inaccurate and without merit,” he said. “This malicious complaint was made by a Democratic activist with no evidence besides inaccurate news stories published by The Miami Herald and represents a significant reprimand of their reporting. Instead of letting this political matter distract him, Mayor Suarez remains committed to the people of Miami where his leadership has helped produce the lowest unemployment, lowest taxes, and lowest homicide rates in recent Miami history.”
At the beginning of the year, the ethics commission also dismissed another complaint that was filed by Kennedy. The complaint claimed that Mayor Suarez has misused public resources by having a security detail from the Miami Police Department accompany him during his presidential campaign.
Mayor Suarez suspended his presidential campaign in August of 2023, saying that “Running for President of the United States has been one of the greatest honors of my life."
