The Republican Party of Florida has sued Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly, the state Democratic Party, other candidates and television broadcasters to block a campaign advertisement citing an expunged grand jury report about Hope Florida, a charitable initiative associated with Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Highlands County, and reported by The Miami Herald, argues that broadcasting allegations from the report violates Florida law. Republican attorneys are seeking an injunction before the November 3 midterm elections and contend that publishing the report's contents constitutes a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
"RPOF will suffer irreparable harm absent a temporary injunction," the lawsuit states, citing the start of early voting.
The advertisement targets Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier, alleging that taxpayer money was transferred to a political committee he controlled. Uthmeier's Democratic challenger, Jose Javier Rodriguez, is among the defendants, alongside chief financial officer candidate Annette Taddeo and several television companies, including Fox Television Stations LLC.
The dispute centers on a grand jury report leaked in August that alleged $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was improperly directed toward opposing a 2024 ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana.
On October 7, Florida's First District Court of Appeal ordered the report expunged, ruling that the money was "never public money" and criticizing the grand jury's findings and the handling of the report by State Attorney Jack Campbell's office.
Republican Party attorney Michael Sasso said the report and advertisements were "wrong on the law and unsupported by the facts," arguing that repeating their allegations on television was a crime under Florida law.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried rejected the lawsuit, saying, "Every time Floridians get closer to the truth about Hope Florida, Republicans find another way to bury it."
Taddeo also criticized the attempt to remove the advertisement and the threatened prosecution of broadcasters.
The dispute follows a similar confrontation in 2024, when DeSantis' administration threatened television stations with prosecution over an advertisement supporting abortion rights. A federal judge temporarily blocked those threats, allowing the advertisement to continue airing.
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