In new defense, Gov. DeSantis differentiates between Hope Florida and Hope Florida Foundation

Casey DeSantis and Gov. Ron DeSantis speak at April 1 press conference. (Florida Channel)

As First Lady Casey DeSantis continues to draw scrutiny along with Hope Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging people to differentiate that program’s “smashing success” from the finances of the Hope Florida Foundation.

“I think what they’re doing with this Foundation is they’re trying to smear the program by implication and trying to smear the First Lady, which is totally unfair in terms of what they’re trying to do,” he said to WINK.

The is an ongoing probe of the $10 million directed to the Hope Florida Foundation in a Medicaid settlement. DeSantis has called that funding pot a “cherry on top” of the overall settlement payment, while Attorney General James Uthmeier dubbed it a “sweetener.”

The semantic argument is new and comes after legalistic justifications from the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and Uthmeier, who was the Governor’s longtime Chief of Staff before his appointment as AG.

AHCA General Counsel Andrew Sheeran wrote lawmakers, including Senate President Ben Albritton, House Speaker Daniel Perez and Rep. Alex Andrade, the Chair of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee.

Sheeran differentiated between the $57.8 million in “potential Medicaid-related damages to the state” and the sum that went to the Hope Florida Foundation as a direct support organization (DSO). That money reportedly ended up being used to enrich political consultants and help program message advertising, a move Sheeran framed as “neither illegal nor illicit.”

“The remaining $10,800,000 component of the offer was not to compensate the State for loss of Medicaid funds, but rather ‘to provide reimbursement … for any other potentially alleged damages (contractual or otherwise) as a result of the alleged covered conduct and to otherwise incent (the State) to pursue settlement on these terms without doing formalized claims audits that would cause further delay and cost to the parties.’ The $10,000,000 donated to the DSO was therefore not Medicaid funds,” the lawyer wrote.

DeSantis cited the document during comments Wednesday in Fort Pierce.

“The agency puts out a document. It goes through the different agreement, the agreement they reached with the company was for about fifty six million dollars to recoup for this PBM Medicaid thing. It’s there, it’s documented. And then they got a ten million dollar private donation on top of that which is what the agency said from the beginning. And so this is an attempt to try to manufacture a narrative where there’s really nothing there,” he said.

Uthmeier has also urged a legalistic exoneration.

“I think the media misunderstands the difference between issue committees and political candidate committees under the IRS code,” he said. “An issue committee can fight against a ballot initiative and I’m very thankful those groups stepped up and helped us secure a big win.”

Uthmeier ran the issue committee that helped to deploy settlement funds that were routed through external political committees. Meanwhile, the Governor said critics are driven by personal animus against his wife.

DeSantis told WINK that the Foundation “acted totally appropriately” and that “people are doing this (probe of Hope Florida finances) … because they want to go after the First Lady, they want to try to demean the success of Hope Florida.”