The Orlando Sentinel editorial board took a firm stance against what it claimed was "intimidation" and "bullying" by the DeSantis administration over its investigation into a charity connected to the governor's wife.
The board reported that it received an unsigned cease-and-desist letter from the Florida Department of Children and Families demanding that reporter Jeffrey Schweers stop his "reporting for a story about funding flowing through Hope Florida, the nonprofit spearheaded by the governor’s wife, Casey."
The letter accused Schweers of "trying to 'harass and intentionally cause distress to foster families by threats and coercion' to get them to talk to him for the story."
The board wrote, "This attempt to bully our newsroom away from a story is clearly intended to be chilling, but it won’t impact our reporting. Hope Florida has already had a lot of questions raised about its funding and grants not just by the Sentinel and other media in Florida but also by state lawmakers."
The editorial board detailed how it found evidence "that the state used Hope Florida as a funnel to divert millions of federal Medicaid-settlement money from its intended destination (health care for poor people) to two political organizations opposing the November ballot amendment on recreational marijuana."
A state representative who investigated the charity said the fund transfer could lead to "money-laundering or other criminal charges.“
"In the real world, if someone defrauded the state or a charity out of $10 million, they’d go to prison," State Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola) told Florida Politics.
The editorial board quoted Sentinel executive editor Roger Simmons saying, “We stand by our stories and reject the state’s attempt to chill free speech and encroach on our First Amendment right to report on an important issue. The state’s characterization of our reporter’s conduct is completely false.”
First Lady Casey DeSantis has denied any wrongdoing.
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