The Florida Trident
@floridatrident.bsky.social
Our mission is to produce well-sourced quality reporting that illuminates complex issues, holds government accountable to its citizens, and enhances civic engagement. The Florida Trident is produced by the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
#DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/25/g...
Guest Commentary: State GOP tried to sidestep the First Amendment. It didn’t work.
As former state legislator Dick Batchelor writes, the since-dropped lawsuit over a Democratic political ad that highlighted the $10 million Hope Florida scandal was an effort to hide the truth.
orlandosentinel.com
Last week, FLCGA filed motion requesting a rehearing on the court's decision to expunge the Hope Florida grand jury report. #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/23/g...
Government watchdog wants expungement of Hope Florida report overturned
The group says the First District Court of Appeal wrongly decided the case and should reconsider or send the matter to the Florida Supreme Court.
orlandosentinel.com
#DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/22/g...
GOP player in ‘ghost’ candidate scandal behind texts slamming AG candidate
Alex Alvarado’s political action committee sent the texts attacking Jose Javier Rodriguez, the Democrat running for Florida attorney general, and was an early supporter of Republican Attorney General…
orlandosentinel.com
A growing number of Florida physicians are fighting the DeSantis administration’s effort to repeal longstanding vaccine mandates. The latest group to join the legal challenge: the Florida Chapter of the American College of Physicians Services. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/repeal-of-va...
DeSantis administration’s repeal of vaccine mandates faces mounting legal challenges
A second wave of Florida physicians is joining a family practice doctor, a leukemia patient and a school nurse in a legal fight to defend longstanding
floridatrident.org
FLCGA is asking the First District Court of Appeal to reconsider its decision ordering a grand jury’s Hope Florida presentment expunged. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/hope-florida...
FLCGA Asks Appeals Court to Rehear Hope Florida Grand Jury Ruling
Never told an appeal was filed, FLCGA and Michael Barfield ask the First DCA to reconsider. A 317-page appendix of the State's own records shows the $10 million was public money from the start.
floridatrident.org
The Republican Party of Florida has now dismissed its Highlands County lawsuit seeking to ban ads about the Hope Florida scandal -- just one day after a circuit judge refused to grant the request without a hearing. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/breaking-new...
Florida GOP Drops Hope Florida Ad Lawsuit
The Republican Party of Florida dismissed its Highlands County suit to ban Democratic Hope Florida ads, five days after the First DCA denied Attorney General James Uthmeier’s own emergency motion to…
floridatrident.org
FLCGA "reported that Uthmeier and other members of the DeSantis administration spent at least $327,000 in taxpayer dollars to keep the report under wraps." #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/19/g...
GOP sues to ban ads tying Uthmeier to Hope Florida scandal, threatens TV stations
The ad has aired on some Orlando TV stations, the lawsuit says.
orlandosentinel.com
"I can't imagine that in the free state of Florida, people could go to jail because of a message that a political party doesn't want to hear and doesn't want others to hear," said Barbara Petersen, whose organization publishes @floridatrident.bsky.social www.miamiherald.com/news/article...
GOP threatens media with criminal prosecution if Hope Florida TV ad runs
The Republican Party of Florida is threatening television stations with criminal prosecution if they run or report on a scathing campaign ad addressing the Hope Florida scandal and a grand jury's find...
miamiherald.com
BREAKING: A judge has denied the Florida Republican Party’s request for an emergency order banning broadcast of the Hope Florida ads. As the Trident reported on Sunday, the party sued to block the ads under threat of criminal prosecution. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/breaking-app...
Appeals court won't ban publication of Hope Florida report, opens second leak probe
Hours after the 1st DCA said no, the Republican Party of Florida asked a Highlands County judge for the same ban. Now the court wants the officials who sought secrecy to explain what they know about…
floridatrident.org
The Republican Party of Florida is threatening criminal prosecution of anyone who repeats a Leon County grand jury’s finding that high-ranking state officials diverted $10 million in the Hope Florida scandal. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/florida-gop-...
Florida GOP says repeating the Hope Florida grand jury's findings is a crime
A late-night lawsuit seeks to pull a Democratic ad off 11 Orlando and Tampa Bay stations and bar anything relaying the expunged report. The party also referred the stations to FDLE and prosecutors,…
floridatrident.org
Maxwell highlights a few more overlooked races in Florida to make sure to vote in next month. #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/07/f...
Maxwell: Ignore the polls in Florida. Focus on what matters. A voter guide
Maxwell: Forget the polls. They’re often wrong. More importantly, they don’t matter. Only votes do. And there are some overlooked races in Florida that deserve your attention. A voter guide
orlandosentinel.com
#DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/07/c...
Court wipes out Hope Florida grand jury presentment that blasted DeSantis administration
” A grand jury may investigate and report, but it may not declare conduct unlawful and then decline to charge it, and it may not condemn people by name without indicting them,” Appellate Judge Lance…
orlandosentinel.com
BREAKING: A Florida appeals court has thrown out the grand jury report from the Hope Florida scheme. The court said the money was never public money, despite the state reimbursing the federal government for the full amount. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/hope-florida...
Court erases Hope Florida grand jury report as taxpayers fund the lawyers who won
No one was allowed to argue to keep the report. The lawyers who won include firms paid more than $300,000 in public money. A third firm, hired 12 days before the grand jury met, represented a witness…
floridatrident.org
Despite DeSantis' push to eliminate school vaccine requirements, polls indicate voters strongly support widely immunizing school-age children. Tomorrow's hearing gives the public another opportunity to weigh in. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/politics-tur...
Politics turns up the heat on latest plan to strike vaccines; groups lawyer up
TALLAHASSEE – Another clash over vaccine mandates in Florida is coming Thursday, when state health officials will hear from the public about striking four
floridatrident.org
"The proposal is billed as a tax cut, but will actually jack up housing costs for millions of Floridians." #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/10/02/f...
Maxwell: Florida sheriffs, fiscal watchdogs say Amendment 3 is a misleading, financial disaster
One of the most striking things about Florida’s Amendment 3 is that almost everybody who’s actually studied this plan thinks it’s a bad idea. Fiscal watchdogs and Wall Street Analysts. Sheriffs and…
yahoo.com
#DefendDemocracy floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/30/h...
House Democrats ask IRS to eye tax implications of $10M transfer to Hope Florida • Florida Phoenix
Top Democrats in the Florida House are demanding the Internal Revenue Service open an investigation into whether the Hope Florida Foundation and two social welfare organizations that received money…
floridaphoenix.com
The IRS is reviewing a whistleblower claim related to the Hope Florida scandal, raising new questions about the $10 million at the center of the controversy. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/irs-whistleb...
IRS takes up whistleblower claim over Hope Florida's $10 million
A Medicaid settlement, a state charity, two nonprofits and Uthmeier's anti-Amendment 3 PAC, all within weeks. Now a whistleblower claim is before the IRS.
floridatrident.org
School choice comes with a catch: Florida now has "a taxpayer-funded network of schools" that "refuse to serve many taxpaying families," says Maxwell. In fact, over 50% of voucher schools in Florida deny students with any type of disability. #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/09/30/f...
Maxwell: Faith-based voucher schools can reject students with disabilities in Florida
A dirty little secret about school “choice” in Florida is that many families of students with disabilities actually have very few choices.
orlandosentinel.com
See how Amendment 3 is going to gut your city's public services! A new online tool shows the extent to which the property tax relief amendment on this year's ballot is likely to cut funding for critical public services across the state. #DefendDemocracy www.wlrn.org/government-p...
Online tool shows hidden impact of Amendment 3 property tax relief on local government services
The Florida Policy Institute launched a new website Tuesday morning. It allows the user to search by zip code, county or service to see how Amendment 3 could impact two-year funding for all public…
wlrn.org
DeSantis continues ignoring laws he doesn't feel like abiding. A 60-day emergency declaration has now been extended for 44 months, yet not one of the annually required audits has occurred despite over $1bil spent. #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/09/29/m...
Maxwell: Required audits are MIA as DeSantis’ ‘emergency’ spending spree continues
Where are the audits? State law says Florida should’ve long ago audited the billions of tax dollars DeSantis spent on “Alligator Alcatraz” and elsewhere. Yet not a single audit has been released. And…
orlandosentinel.com
To manage the Hope Florida initiative, DCF moved workers away from administering Medicaid and food assistance. The staff left behind are less trained and poorly paid, and the DCF department is now failing by nearly every federal measure. #DefendDemocracy floridatrib.org/2026/09/23/h...
How Hope Florida quietly hollowed out Florida’s safety net
State records show the controversial initiative shifted priorities away from DCF’s eligibility division that has since failed federal standards and left Floridians cut off
floridatrib.org
It's illegal to use taxpayer money for legal bills in a criminal investigation of public officials -- yet taxpayers paid another law firm $111,387 to represent an unidentified person in Gov. DeSantis’ office during the Hope Florida investigation. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/governors-of...
Governor’s office paid a second law firm $111,000 as Hope Florida grand jury report was fought in secret
Invoices obtained by the Florida Trident show a second taxpayer-funded firm contacting Leon County prosecutors and fighting to keep the Hope Florida grand jury report sealed.
floridatrident.org
The DeSantis admin is using an emergency rule to designate groups as domestic terrorists despite state law requiring FDLE to adopt nonemergency rules governing this process. This action also bypasses requirements for public input & transparency. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/a-rush-to-ju...
A rush to judgment on domestic terrorists
The DeSantis Administration is relying on an emergency rule to designate certain groups as domestic terrorists, circumventing public input required under
floridatrident.org
Investigation into the Hope Florida scandal continues to uncover undisclosed public information: Following 2024 elections, the DeSantis administration awarded a new contract to the outside attorneys who secured the $67 mil Centene settlement. #DefendDemocracy jasongarcia.substack.com/p/desantis-s...
DeSantis staff quietly rehired jilted lawyers who helped secure the Hope Florida settlement
Just after the 2024 elections, the DeSantis administration awarded a new contract to lawyers who helped bring in a legal settlement that the governor’s staff then used to fund political activities.
jasongarcia.substack.com
Multiple misconduct cases involving Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office have put a spotlight on the agency’s discipline and transparency practices. But limited public data makes it impossible to tell whether the problem is getting worse. #DefendDemocracy www.wmnf.org/hcso-miscond...
HCSO misconduct cases raise questions aboout accountability and transparency
HCSO misconduct cases involving deputies and command staff raise questions about accountability, discipline, transparency, and prevention.
wmnf.org
Former state Sen. Annette Taddeo is calling for a Legislature-led investigation into the $200,000 taxpayer-funded payment to Blaise Ingoglia's Chief of Staff Katie Strickland, which the Trident reported on last week. #DefendDemocracy floridapolitics.com/archives/821...
Annette Taddeo demands probe of taxpayer-funded legal bills for Blaise Ingoglia's Chief of Staff
An Attorney General opinion still posted on the Office's website says agencies may not pay an employee's grand jury legal fees.
floridapolitics.com
50 insurance companies that claimed to have lost nearly half a billion dollars actually sent $1.3B to affiliated companies elsewhere -- and 20 companies paid affiliates more than the "fair and reasonable" amount permitted by state law. #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/09/22/f...
Maxwell: Florida hid insurance industry’s lies — and tried to stop us from revealing them
When the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel obtained a report that showed Florida insurance companies made misleading claims about losing money, the Florida Senate threatened the…
orlandosentinel.com
As a senator, Jose Javier Rodriguez regularly wore rain boots around the Florida Capitol to call attention to rising sea levels. After losing his Senate seat by just 32 votes in a ghost candidate scheme, he’s back and running for attorney general. #DefendDemocracy floridatrident.org/florida-clim...
A Florida climate warrior challenges corrupt political power structure
Once upon a time, one Florida legislator was the fiercest climate warrior in Tallahassee. You could see his stance written on his unusual footwear. When
floridatrident.org
"We are staring at a black box and can't see anything," said FLCGA Executive Director Michael Barfield. "We're entitled to look into the black box and see what is in there." #DefendDemocracy www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/09/18/a...
“A black box”: Watchdog hopes to pry loose Hope Florida court records
Grand jury proceedings are secret, but a government watchdog group says motions and orders related to them, including who is moving to keep them out of the public eye, should be made public.
orlandosentinel.com
