The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has sent a cease and desist letter to an Orlando Sentinel reporter who has been digging into the Hope Florida scandal.
Jeffrey Schweers, the Sentinel’s Tallahassee bureau reporter, has broken some scoops regarding the embattled charity backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis.
Schweers recently wrote about a woman who made a social media post complimenting Hope Florida who had actually been paid $588 by the organization a few days earlier. Another story covered a woman who had been promoted in Hope Florida’s marketing who was still living in poverty despite receiving assistance from the charity three years ago.
Now, as Schweers is apparently working on his next piece, the DCF is accusing the reporter of “threats and coercion.”
“We have heard that @jeffschweers with the @orlandosentinel is calling foster families in Florida and threatening or coercing them to say things about Hope Florida. This is unacceptable,” the agency said in a post that received 150,000 views in 90 minutes.
“The Hope Florida Foundation supported foster families with donations from non-taxpayer funded sources that allowed these families to repair and restore their homes following the hurricanes last year.”
The cease and desist letter said Schweers was working on a story about foster families and “asserting that the families are implicated in fraudulent activity by accepting financial assistance from Hope Florida Foundation Inc., a charitable Director Support Organization affiliated with this department.”
It did not, however, cite any specific examples of Schweers doing anything beyond reporting out a potential story.
Hope Florida has been under fire this year following the revelation the state gave $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the charity. Some of the money was funneled to help DeSantis fight last year’s ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.
Leon County prosecutors have opened a criminal probe on Hope Florida, according to media reports.
It’s not the first time the state has sent cease and desist letters to the media.
Under orders from DeSantis’ attorneys, the Department of Health sent cease and desist letters to TV stations playing pro-abortion rights ads during last year’s failed Amendment 4 campaign.
Florida Politics reached out to Orlando Sentinel for comment and will update the story when the newspaper responds.
–Gabrielle Russon, Florida Politics
Joe D says
Well…..this is FLORIDA ….REMEMBER?
Any other Non- Profit organization would throw open the books, to the legitimate audit agencies (who should have audited this a year ago, per Florida Law, by the way), and say “SURE, look over our records, and you will find we have NOTHING to HIDE!”
Nope, in THIS case they have decided to SUE the reporter and his news organization ( most probably using the Non-Profit’s tax free donated money intended for local HUMANITARIAN assistance), in an effort to INTIMIDATE and STIFLE the news organization’s continuing efforts to investigate the incident and the (POTENTIAL at this point) suggestion of financial FRAUD by the HOPE FLORIDA non-profit.
It’s not a NEW legal tactic. The current Trump Administration is FAMOUS for the tactics “ Sue them into the ground to shut them up,” by bankrupting the news organization in their continuing efforts to defend themselves in court.
Just look at what the Trump organization is doing to CBS, after accusing CBS of “selectively” editing a Kamala Harris interview. CBS has ALREADY released the entire interview, but has agreed to SETTLE the suit for MILLIONS of dollars. Not because they are admitting to doing anything wrong, but because they don’t want to anger Trump associates resulting in the new TRUMP appointed FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to deny their request for a merger with a communications company, slated for later this year.
We have all seen how the Trump Administration (in my opinion) has WEAPONIZED the Department of Justice, and other FEDERAL AGENCIES to target those that do not “Tow the Trump party line.” Or Target those who contributed to PRIOR investigations of Trump’s finances and behavior.
Sure doesn’t sound like a FREE DEMOCRACY to me, but then you get what you vote for….or maybe you DIDN’T !
I’m only sorry that Casey De Santis is implicated in this…I’m FAIRLY sure she was COMPLETELY unaware of what was being done in the name of her Hope Florida, non profit.
Merrill Shapiro says
“Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.”
― Henry Kissinger
Just saying? says
State sanctioned cover up anyone? Or just making investigation difficult?
JimboXYZ says
The only DCF run in I’ve ever had, 2018 was renting an apartment (Nassau County) & had just moved into the place. The DCF Gestapo showed up for their +/-pre-sunrise, dawn raid looking for children at risk that never lived there. I open the door responding to the annoying door knock at the crack of dawn to be confronted by a couple of DCF people. There was one pushy old bag/hag that triggered me even more than the rest of them with her demands. Anyway, they are standing out there asking me where someone else’s child was. So their intelligence/information was wrong, they didn’t coordinate anything with the Property Management & rental office, or they would have known that. What was weird about it, I stood out at the front entry way & watched several DCF teams banging on doors looking for these “at-risk” kids that they didn’t where they actually lived. I got no apology, no thank you for even responding to door to door raid.
Jim says
This is just a sad statement on the government of this state now. A reporter is investigating possible wrong doing by a “charity” and the state government sends that reporter a “cease and desist” notice? How is this any of the state government’s interests unless they have concerns about where that reporter’s investigation might lead! This is weaponization of the government in support of DeSantis. “Hope Florida” is clearly a political arm of the DeSantis clan and it was used in the last election to funnel taxpayer funds to groups opposing marijuana and abortion amendments in the last election. I’m glad to hear Leon County prosecutors have opened a criminal probe. I honestly thought it would just get glossed over by the state government since they only investigate Democrat wrong-doing under DeSantis. I hope they get to the bottom of it.
I hope Jeffrey Schweers continues his investigation and I hope he can get to the bottom of this scandal. Everyone in Florida should want to know what is really going on regardless of political persuasion.