TALLAHASSEE—Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is accusing a Republican lawmaker of hounding First Lady Casey DeSantis's charity on behalf of the state's largest medical marijuana company, Trulieve.
Uthmeier's comments to The Floridian come days after state Rep. Alex Andrade publicly grilled the head of the state's healthcare agency on why $10 million of a state settlement was given to Hope Florida—a non-profit founded by Gov. Ron DeSantis's wife—without lawmakers knowing. Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, has since blasted the DeSantis administration on former Rep. Matt Gaetz's conservative talk show and social media, accusing them of fraud.
Hope Florida, which also hasn't filed its tax information, forwarded its settlement money to two other non-profits weeks after the September settlement. Those organizations then donated millions to a political committee founded to destroy a 2024 pro-weed ballot measure, called Amendment 3.
Uthmeier was its chair.
And in a sit-down interview with The Floridian, Uthmeier claimed Andrade is taking a stance against the First Lady's initiative because he's in Trulieve's pocket.
"[Andrade] appears to be very much in close ties with Trulieve," Uthmeier said. He pointed out that one of Andrade's bills exempting veterans from medical marijuana card fees has since been "watered down" from its original status, which would have allowed cardholders to grow up to two medical marijuana plants at home.
Trulieve is the largest medical marijuana company in Florida. It was also the main benefactor behind 2024's Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana. The DeSantises hosted a total of 16 statewide events blasting Amendment 3 and Amendment 4, which would have expanded abortion access, and directed state agencies to spend tens of millions of state dollars to oppose the "dangerous" measures, which both narrowly failed on Election Day.
"When [Trulieve] lost at the ballot box, they tried to go through the legislature to run a bill," Uthmeier continued. "You can see an angle there...It does seem like there’s a lot of politic[s] going on here."
But Andrade claims that Uthmeier is the one playing politics.
'Intimidation'? Or 'No Problem Whatsoever'?
"Has he explained why he personally called 2 dark money [groups] and told them both to ask for $5,000,000 that ended up in his PAC?" Andrade said in a text message, alleging that Uthmeier had orchestrated the two non-profits gaining access to Hope Florida's $10 million payout.
"James is proving the point; when you can't attack the facts, you try to attack the man," Andrade continued. "He might be the [Attorney General], but he can't intimidate me from pursuing the truth."
The Pensacola Representative questioned the Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, Shevaun Harris, on Wednesday in front of his Health Care Budget Subcommittee. The 15-member panel questioned Harris for over 2 hours on why her agency, which is in charge of Medicaid, carved out $10 million of a settlement to the state to go to Hope Florida.
Hope Florida is a non-profit founded by Casey DeSantis to get Floridians off of government assistance by connecting them with community resources.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that the non-profit, despite existing since 2023, has not filed any of its tax information. It also received $10 million of a $67 million settlement from health care giant Centene to AHCA after the state was overbilled, unbeknownst to lawmakers.
Weeks after the settlement, Hope Florida doled out $5 million apiece to Secure Florida's Future and Save our Society from Drugs, two other non-profits. Soon after, in October, the groups donated around $9 million to Uthmeier's political committee against Amendment 3, Keep Florida Clean.
Uthmeier insisted all was above board.
"Any notion that there's anything unlawful there is completely wrong," he said of the Centene settlement, claiming it's "not uncommon" for settlements to go to outside entities.
"One example is the Triumph [Gulf Coast] Board, which gives out a lot of the BP oil spill money to counties along the coast that suffered damage," he said.
"A not-for-profit organization providing significant grants to other not-for-profit organizations, there’s no problem with that whatsoever...We needed organizations like that to come through and fight what I believe was a dangerous amendment that put kids in jeopardy," Uthmeier added.
Andrade will delve further into Hope Florida's operations during his Tuesday morning budget subcommittee, where Hope Florida President Joshua Hay is expected to answer questions.
