TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference this week: “When the narratives are set, they’re set.” Weeks ago, a leaked grand jury report seemed to fix a storyline around the Hope Florida saga that has trailed the governor and some of his closest allies. Grand jurors wrote that top administration officials “misappropriated” $10 million in Medicaid settlement money. ...

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks about Hope Florida during a news conference on May 20, 2025, in Tampa, Florida.

Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference this week: “When the narratives are set, they’re set.”

Weeks ago, a leaked grand jury report seemed to fix a storyline around the Hope Florida saga that has trailed the governor and some of his closest allies. Grand jurors wrote that top administration officials “misappropriated” $10 million in Medicaid settlement money.

Then came a bombshell appeals court ruling days ago that appeared to blow up that narrative. A DeSantis-appointed judge wrote that the jury made mistakes and was wrong to declare state leaders misspent the money.

As Democrats continue their demand for investigations into the DeSantis administration, the governor’s top circle is now calling for criminal charges against those who leaked the grand jury report. The question is: Which storyline will prevail at the ballot box?

The report’s main conclusion was that two years ago, the DeSantis team diverted $10 million from a Medicaid settlement for political purposes. The jury identified a number of players in the drama, including two on the November ballot — Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, and a U.S. senator, Ashley Moody.

After a Florida appellate court ruled Wednesday that no laws were broken because the $10 million in question wasn’t public money and the grand jury report was illegally leaked, DeSantis declared that the opinion “vindicated” all those involved. Judges ordered that the report be expunged.

Authored by Judge Lance Neff, the opinion was the “judicial equivalent of a death-by-firing squad to the Hope Florida Hoax,” DeSantis wrote on social media.

“All the narratives crashed and burned with this opinion,” he said, adding that those responsible for leaking the grand jury report should be prosecuted.

Issued 27 days before the Nov. 3 election, the timing of the opinion was helpful for Republicans who find themselves in a tough political environment. Despite massive financial and voter registration advantages, many GOP statewide candidates are in statistical ties with their underfunded Democratic opponents, according to polling.

The opinion blunts a major attack line Democrats have used, especially against Moody and Uthmeier.

But the political cover is hardly bulletproof.

One of Florida’s most prominent Republicans — U.S. Sen. Rick Scott — said Thursday he was not ready to move on.

Asked if he believed the ruling wiped the Hope Florida issue away, Scott replied: “No, it’s still an issue, and it still needs to be.”

If the state wasn’t going to look further into what happened to the $10 million, the federal government should, Scott told the Tampa Bay Times.

“Let’s just get the facts,” he said. “Where and why was the money taken? Why hasn’t the money been given back?”

Such sentiments from Florida’s senior U.S. senator, who’s a Republican and DeSantis’ predecessor, hardly indicate the saga will disappear.

Democrats are doing all they can to keep it alive.

They have a lot riding on voters exercising frustrations over Hope Florida at the polls. With lagging coffers, Florida Democrats have deployed the Hope Florida saga as a key campaign theme that they can deliver to voters via free earned media.

The opponents of Moody and Uthmeier, specifically, are calling for both state and federal investigations and said the appellate court’s opinion won’t change that.

“No, this doesn’t hurt Democrats — if anything it heightens the contrast,” state Rep. Angie Nixon, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, told the Times/Herald. She pivoted to her opponent, Moody, who as Florida’s attorney general authorized a deputy to sign off on the settlement giving $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation.

“This scandal has never been about a piece of paper; it’s about Ashley Moody’s documented conduct, using taxpayer money for partisan political gain, and her continued refusal to answer for it.”

Moody did not respond to a request for comment.

Jose Javier Rodriguez, the Democrat running for attorney general, accused Uthmeier of celebrating “like a criminal defendant who got off on a technicality.”

“None of the facts have changed; $10 million was taken out of the Medicaid program. It should’ve gone to sick kids, and it didn’t,” Rodriguez said, vowing to “go after” the $10 million if elected to the Cabinet position.

Uthmeier’s campaign, meanwhile, pushed back on Rodriguez, accusing the former state senator of “desperately trying to keep perpetuating the lies.”

“The District Court of Appeal concluded the entire proceedings were erroneous as a matter of law,” Brittany McGivern, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. “Jose Rodriguez is clearly disappointed the Court shut down the Democrats’ hoax.”

The campaign for the Democratic nominee for governor, David Jolly, declined to comment on what the new opinion meant for the Hope Florida saga. Jolly has previously vowed he would push for a fresh investigation if elected. His Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, called the opinion another sign that it was time to move on.

“Going any further is just people trying to play political games with it,” he said.

But even that sentiment puts him at odds with Scott, one of his most loyal supporters who, for eight years, held the job that Donalds seeks. On Thursday, after a campaign stop in Largo, he shook off any concern that Scott has unanswered questions about Hope Florida.

“There can always be questions,” Donalds told reporters.

An adviser to the Jolly campaign, Mark Riddle, told the Times/Herald that the Hope Florida saga speaks to a larger “culture of corruption” in Tallahassee — one that he says Jolly hopes to root out.

“Where David has been on this, is transparency. Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Riddle said.