Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell Opens Criminal Investigation Into Hope Florida Money Trail

Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell said Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, that her office is pursuing its own criminal investigation of the Hope Florida affair, the scheme in which a Leon County grand jury found $10 million of Medicaid settlement money was improperly diverted to political campaigning against Florida's 2024 recreational marijuana amendment. Worrell, a Democrat whose Ninth Judicial Circuit covers Orange and Osceola counties, said her staff is examining documents and interviewing witnesses to determine whether any of the money was spent in Central Florida and whether that spending was a crime.

The move reopens, in a new venue, a matter that a Tallahassee-area grand jury closed in January without charges. It also lands five weeks before an election in which the man at the center of the money trail, Attorney General James Uthmeier, is on the ballot, and roughly a month after Worrell publicly warned that Gov. Ron DeSantis was preparing to remove her from office for a second time.

"As in any case, if I find criminal wrongdoing that I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, I will file charges. And if I cannot, I won't."

That was how Worrell described her standard for the case, according to the Orlando Sentinel report published by Yahoo News. She said she has not ruled out convening a grand jury of her own in Orlando.

What Worrell's office is examining

Worrell's jurisdictional hook is local spending. She said she has information that the political committees that ultimately received the diverted money bought advertising in the Central Florida media market, which would place part of the alleged conduct inside her circuit. "I know that there were political ads here in Central Florida and paid by the entities that received the money," she said, according to the Sentinel.

She was blunt about the gap between the grand jury's findings and its conclusion. "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," she said. Worrell also acknowledged the case will be difficult to build, saying the situation is unique and challenging because people are going to be afraid to participate.

Her office has not said who it has interviewed, what records it has requested, or how much money it believes was spent in Orange and Osceola counties. Worrell has not accused any individual of a crime, and no one has been charged in connection with Hope Florida in any jurisdiction.

How the $10 million moved

Hope Florida is the public assistance initiative First Lady Casey DeSantis launched in 2021 to connect struggling Floridians with churches, charities and government services. Its fundraising arm is the Hope Florida Foundation.

In 2024 the state's Agency for Health Care Administration settled an overbilling dispute with Centene Corp., a Medicaid managed care vendor, for about $67 million. Under the deal, $10 million was routed to the Hope Florida Foundation rather than to the state. The foundation then granted the money to two nonprofits, Secure Florida's Future and Save Our Society From Drugs, which in turn sent millions of dollars to Keep Florida Clean, the political committee Uthmeier ran while serving as DeSantis' chief of staff. Keep Florida Clean led the campaign against Amendment 3, the 2024 ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana for adults. The amendment won a majority of the vote but fell short of the 60% Florida requires.

According to the Sentinel's account of the grand jury report, the money moved in these steps:

Keep Florida Clean spent more than $8 million on advertising against Amendment 3, the Sentinel reported. The report also described how an Orlando-based attorney working with the foundation, Jeff Aaron, called foundation chair Joshua Hay to tell him the $10 million was coming and advised the board to give Hay authority to approve grants on his own.

What the grand jury found

State Attorney Jack Campbell of the Second Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee opened a criminal investigation in May 2025, and a Leon County grand jury heard testimony from current and former DeSantis administration officials that October. The panel completed its report, known as a presentment, on Jan. 28, 2026. It remained out of public view until CBS News Miami obtained and published it in late August.

The grand jury concluded that the administration "misappropriated" the $10 million as part of "a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities," and said Uthmeier "was in a position of authority over those involved." It also said the office of then-Attorney General Ashley Moody, now a U.S. senator, knew of the plan. But it did not recommend charges, finding there was not enough evidence to show who specifically was responsible because nobody claimed responsibility or could remember who decided to pursue the arrangement.

Several former prosecutors criticized that outcome in interviews with CBS News Miami. Former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said crimes likely occurred, including first-degree felonies such as grand theft and official misconduct.

Uthmeier and DeSantis defend the transfer

Uthmeier, whom DeSantis appointed attorney general in February 2025 and who is now running for a full term, has consistently said the transfer was lawful. "Every top lawyer, virtually, in the state approved it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is entirely legal," he said at a news conference, according to the Sentinel. He has called the renewed attention a politically motivated attack and suggested Democrats were behind the leak. DeSantis has said the transfer was legally sound and consistent with the state's mission, and that the only apparent crime was the leak of the grand jury report itself.

Democrats have seized on the findings. House Democrats called for a special session to consider impeaching Uthmeier, and Democratic nominee for governor David Jolly and attorney general nominee Jose Javier Rodriguez have both promised new investigations if elected.

The 2025 House inquiry

The first official scrutiny came from a Republican. In the spring of 2025, Rep. Alex Andrade of Pensacola, then chair of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee, began questioning why settlement money had gone to a private foundation without legislative appropriation, raising the possibility of money laundering and wire fraud. His hearings stalled in late April 2025 after Hope Florida and the nonprofits stopped cooperating. The grand jury report later noted that the panel convened only because of the allegations Andrade raised.

Worrell's history with DeSantis

Worrell's decision carries extra weight because of her own fraught relationship with the governor. DeSantis suspended her in August 2023, citing neglect of duty and incompetence and accusing her of being too lenient on crime. He appointed former Orange County Judge Andrew Bain in her place. Worrell ran to reclaim the job in November 2024 and beat Bain with about 57% of the vote.

On Sept. 1, 2026, Worrell held a news conference saying she had been tipped off that a second removal was imminent. "Let me be completely clear: If I am removed from office, it will not be because I'm not doing my job," she said, according to WFTV. In a later interview with CBS News Miami she tied the rumors directly to her interest in Hope Florida. "I can only believe that the motivation is the fact that I have said that I will look into how the Hope Florida scandal impacted this community," she said. No suspension order has been issued. Uthmeier, asked about her, has criticized her handling of cases, telling reporters he wants prosecutors to "put bad guys away."

What's next

Worrell gave no timeline. Her office must first establish that conduct within Orange or Osceola counties could support a charge under Florida law, then decide whether to file directly or seek an indictment from a local grand jury. Any case would almost certainly face challenges over jurisdiction and over whether a state attorney in one circuit can revisit a matter a grand jury in another circuit declined to charge.

The timing ensures the issue will stay in front of voters. Uthmeier faces Rodriguez in the Nov. 3 general election, and the governor's race between Jolly and Republican Byron Donalds has already featured sharp exchanges over the grand jury findings.