A Florida appeals court panel on Wednesday ordered the full expungement of a grand jury report that found Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration had “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer money by diverting it to a charity tied to the governor’s wife.
The unanimous decision found that the grand jury, empaneled last year by prosecutors in Tallahassee, exceeded its authority by accusing people of a “sophisticated scheme” to “misappropriate funds,” but issuing no indictments.
The grand jury report, which was never publicly released but was leaked to a Miami news station and published in August, wrongfully “impugned” private individuals involved in the transfer of $10 million to political committees, wrote Judge Lance E. Neff of the state’s First District Court of Appeal.
“A grand jury is not an autonomous agency with unlimited power,” wrote Judge Neff, whom Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, appointed to the bench this year. The judge used to work as a lawyer for the state’s prison system and attorney general’s office.
The ruling described the report as “careless in its grammar, mistaken in its law, and unfaithful to its own record.”
The decision adds another twist to a scandal that has rocked Florida political circles and has been cited by Democrats as evidence of corruption within the DeSantis administration. Mr. DeSantis will leave office in January because of term limits.
“This is complete and total vindication,” Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesman for Mr. DeSantis, said in a statement.
The grand jury in Leon County, home to the state capital Tallahassee, investigated the fund-raising arm of Hope Florida, a charity that the state’s first lady, Casey DeSantis, started in 2021. The charity’s goal was to keep families off public assistance by connecting them with churches and aid groups.
In 2024, its fund-raising arm, the Hope Florida Foundation, received $10 million from a health care company facing scrutiny from the state for Medicaid overbilling. The company, Centene, also paid $57 million to the state as part of a settlement.
That $10 million — which the DeSantis administration called a private “donation” — was immediately redirected to political committees backing a campaign that Mr. DeSantis was leading against a ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana.
Florida grand juries, by law, can probe issues of public interest, including those involving public officials. Their reports are often made public, even if they reach conclusions other than an indictment.
The report in question, completed in January, named numerous officials in the DeSantis administration and called the transactions “part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities.” But proving a crime was impossible because witnesses could not recall who directed the Centene money to Hope Florida, the report found.
The appeals court wrote that a grand jury “may report official incompetence or laxity even where no crime is charged,” but that when a grand jury finds violations of law, “its duty is to indict, and when charges are unfounded, its duty is to exonerate.”
The ruling also criticized the office of Jack Campbell, the Leon County state attorney, for emailing the secret report to “at least 49 recipients,” calling that “a disclosure of confidential material beyond what the statute authorizes.” Mr. Campbell declined to comment.
A Leon County judge had already ordered most of the report redacted over the summer, after a watchdog organization argued for its disclosure. Mr. Campbell had appealed that ruling, but he withdrew the appeal after CBS Miami published the entire report in late August.
Michael Barfield, executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, the watchdog group, called the appellate process “a one-sided show” driven by lawyers for people named in the report who wanted to keep it secret.
Mr. Barfield said the organization is weighing its legal options.
“Florida has a long history of grand jury presentments critical of public officials such as the ones involved in this case,” he said. “Many grand jury reports have not indicted but criticized — and that is allowed by law.”
The spotlight on Hope Florida is not going away.
Monique H. Worrell, the state attorney for the Orlando area, has said that her office is investigating the Hope Florida matter, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Mr. DeSantis in 2023 suspended Ms. Worrell, a Democrat, from office, saying that she was incompetent and had neglected her duties. Voters later re-elected her.
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