ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell is actively pursuing her own criminal investigation of the Hope Florida scandal, after a Tallahassee-area grand jury found that $10 million of Medicaid settlement funds were improperly diverted for political purposes but stopped short of seeking charges.

Worrell said she decided to launch an independent review. She and her staff are examining documents and interviewing witnesses to find out whether misappropriated Medicaid funds were spent in Central Florida and if doing so constituted criminal activity. Worrell had said in late August she was “willing” to look into the issue, but revealed this week in an extensive interview with the Orlando Sentinel that her effort is well underway.

“As in any case, if I find criminal wrongdoing that I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, I will file charges,” Worrell said. “And if I cannot, I won’t.”

Worrell’s effort carries ample political intrigue, since she was once removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration created the Hope Florida anti-welfare program and related charity, and she remains a frequent target of state Attorney General James Uthmeier, who has been implicated in the scandal. Worrell said in August she has heard whispers she will be removed again.

In her interview with the Sentinel, Worrell said her investigation was prompted by news reports about the Leon County grand jury report, called a “presentment,” which found that funds from a legal settlement involving Medicaid contracting had been improperly routed through Hope Florida to political groups campaigning against the legalization of marijuana. But it concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to bring criminal charges against those involved because nobody claimed responsibility or could remember who decided to pursue the scheme.

“We have a leaked report that says funds were misappropriated, then we have a conclusion that no one would be prosecuted because no one would claim responsibility,” Worrell said. “My office prosecutes people every single day that don’t take responsibility.”

There could be a combination of potential wrongdoing, Worrell said, much of which took place in Tallahassee, which is beyond her jurisdiction. But what gives her leverage is the purchase of ads that aired in Orange and Osceola counties. “It’s not just that money was misappropriated, but where that misappropriated money was spent,” she said.

The release of the grand jury report already sparked an outcry from both state legislative Democrats and Republicans and some Democratic members of Congress demanding a fresh investigation. And it’s become an issue in the state governor’s race, with Democrat David Jolly calling for a new inquiry while Republican Byron Donalds saying there is no need for further investigation.

The grand jury report concluded state officials under Uthmeier, who was then serving as chief of staff for DeSantis and was later appointed as attorney general, conducted a “sophisticated scheme to fund political activities” to divert $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation from a $67 million settlement agreement meant to cover health care for poor children.

“Every top lawyer, virtually, in the state approved it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it,” Uthmeier said at a news conference on Monday in response to a reporter’s question. “It is entirely legal.”

Those lawyers include Uthmeier himself; former attorney general Ashley Moody, whom DeSantis appointed to the U.S. Senate last year to replace Marco Rubio; John Guard, her former deputy attorney general whom DeSantis appointed to the second district court of appeals; and Jason Weida, the former secretary for the Agency for Health Care Administration that runs the state Medicaid program, who is the current chief of staff to DeSantis.

DeSantis has also defended the $10 million transfer to Hope Florida’s charity arm. “It was legally sound, it was appropriate and it was consistent with the state’s mission,” DeSantis said at a news conference after the grand jury report came out.

The Hope Florida Foundation transfer was quickly distributed to two nonprofits that in turn donated millions to a campaign to defeat Amendment 3, a citizen-driven ballot initiative to legalize marijuana. The largest beneficiary of those donations was Keep Florida Clean, a political committee run by Uthmeier, who at the time was “in a position of authority over those involved” in negotiating the final Medicaid settlement agreement, the grand jury report said. And Moody ordered her deputy chief to sign the settlement agreement.

Uthmeier’s committee, doing business as “No On 3,” bought over $8 million in ads opposing the ballot initiative, according to AdImpact, a private company that tracks political spending. It is unclear how much of that money was spent in central Florida, but Worrell said she has proof.

“I know that there were political ads here in Central Florida and paid by the entities that received the money,” Worrell said. “That’s all I can say on the record right now. Anything else would be getting into the weeds of evidence if charges were to be filed.”

Another link to Central Florida is Jeff Aaron, a founding shareholder of an Orlando-based law firm who represented both the Hope Florida Foundation and Keep Florida Clean, and was a Maitland resident. The foundation’s chair Joshua Hay testified that Aaron called him to tell him that the $10 million was coming along with a grant request for half of it from Secure Florida’s Future, a political committee chaired by Mark Wilson, the president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Secure Florida’s Future then gave $4.85 million to Keep Florida Clean.

The board approved the grant, and on Aaron’s advice, gave Hay the power to approve subsequent grants on his own.

Aaron also was put in touch with Amy Ronshausen of Save our Society from Drugs by Uthmeier, who told her Aaron “could assist her in the process,” the grand jury report said. She texted Aaron, asking who to send her request to and how much to request, and he gave her Wilson’s letter as a model for her request. She said Aaron also recommended she ask for $5 million.

A week later she emailed her application to Aaron, and heard back the same day that her request was approved. Within weeks, Save Our Society gave Keep Florida Clean $4.75 million.

Worrell and her law enforcement team have been reviewing information that has come out of the Leon County grand jury report, speaking to grand jury witnesses who have obtained information through their own public records requests, and looking at documents related to the investigation, she said.

“All of that will inform me how I move forward with my criminal investigation,” Worrell said.

She could also convene a grand jury of her own. “We do it in cases like this so we do not appear to be uninformed,” she said, though it isn’t required.

And in a public corruption case like this, Worrell said, “We want the community to inform us how to proceed.”

For Worrell, it’s a tricky balancing act. She wants to protect the identities of the people she is interviewing, who fear for their livelihoods given the DeSantis administration’s reputation for retaliating against those who oppose him.

But, she said, “These are people that recognize something very wrong happened… and want something done. And they want to see justice in this case.”

It may also be difficult to find a judge to issue warrants against a sitting governor, attorney general or senator, she added. Especially when Uthmeier and Moody are seeking election to the offices to which they were appointed by DeSantis.

“This whole situation is very unique and challenging because people are going to be afraid to participate in the prosecution of an administration that doesn’t play by the rules,” Worrell said. ”Which judge is going to issue a warrant? Which friend of DeSantis will give him a heads up that this is happening?”

And she is well aware that she is sticking her own neck on the chopping block. DeSantis had her removed from office in 2023 for alleged incompetence and neglect of duty. Worrell won back her office in 2024, defeating the man DeSantis appointed to replace her, former Orange County Judge Andrew Bain, 57-43 %.

“Will I be removed from office again before I can finish?” Worrell asked. “At this point, a governor’s removal order could be seen as an obstruction of justice.”

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