James Uthmeier, Florida’s appointed attorney general, has aggressively wielded the power of his office against duly elected officials he believes stepped out of line – but after he was a focus of the highly critical Hope Florida grand jury report, he rebuffed questions and denied culpability.

Uthmeier, who was named to his post by Gov. Ron DeSantis last February, has threatened mayors, county commissioners and state attorneys with removal from office for failing to meet his legal standards, and ignored a federal judge whose ruling he didn’t like – landing himself in contempt of court. 

Now, a grand jury has found Uthmeier played a central role in the Hope Florida scandal, in which the DeSantis administration “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer funds from a Medicaid settlement “as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities,” according to a copy of the grand jury’s findings first reported by CBS News Miami. 

The grand jury found a political committee controlled by Uthmeier was the “prime recipient” of a majority of the funds. When a journalist asked the attorney general about the findings, Uthmeier suggested the reporter had committed a crime by asking the question about the sealed report  – while at the same time claiming that “nobody did anything wrong here.” 

Uthmeier has been dogged by controversy throughout his brief stint in the office.

Uthmeier, who previously served as DeSantis’ chief of staff and managed his ill-fated presidential campaign, is credited as the architect behind the now-shuttered immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” for which state officials quietly inked an estimated $1 billion in contracts, he’s accepted thousands of dollars in campaign donations from firms he hired, and he’s netted a $100,000-a-year adjunct teaching gig at the University of Florida for a mere two hours of instruction per week.

‘Insufficient evidence’

Despite finding the $10 million was diverted away from state coffers and wound up in Republican-controlled political campaign committees, the grand jury said there was “insufficient evidence” to charge anyone criminally – because no one would admit to orchestrating the scheme. Uthmeier was not listed as a witness before the grand jury.

A spokesperson for Uthmeier did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Now, lawmakers in the Florida House of Representatives are turning to one of the only levers of accountability they have over the attorney general – calling on the House to launch an investigation and hold a special session for the chamber to exercise its independent constitutional authority and consider impeaching Uthmeier for his role in Hope Florida.

“The grand jury clearly found that this was a criminal action involving the misappropriation of taxpayer money – your money, my money, our money – by Republicans at the highest levels of state government who put their own political ambitions over helping the people,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said in a call with reporters Wednesday. 

“The people of Florida deserve answers. And although they may not get restitution, we can work together to ensure that there is accountability,” Driskell added.

A political longshot

In a time of profound partisan polarization, the impeachment push is unlikely to go anywhere in the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature, where the GOP enjoys a supermajority in both chambers. The House is also currently without a permanent leader after former House Speaker Daniel Perez resigned to become the ambassador to Brazil, leaving Speaker pro tempore Wyman Duggan temporarily at the helm. A spokesperson for Duggan did not respond to a request for comment.

Still, some high-profile Republicans have publicly voiced their criticism of the Hope Florida scandal, with Florida’s senior U.S. Sen. Rick Scott calling the grand jury’s findings “deeply disturbing” and state Sen. Don Gaetz saying the affair brings “disgrace” on Florida government. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee to succeed DeSantis as governor, has pledged to support legislative changes to ensure “this does not occur again.”

Gaetz, who is a former Senate president and now chairs his chamber’s Committee on Ethics and Elections, said he’s working on what he says will be bipartisan legislation to enact reforms.

“I will propose legislation to implement the recommendations of the grand jury,” to prevent the use of public money for political or personal purposes, Gaetz told The Florida Trib. “My bill will include severe consequences for anyone who does that, any public officer or anyone else, who engages in such wrongful activity.”

A powerful elder statesman and an expert on legislative rules and procedure, Gaetz has championed ethics and accountability from within Tallahassee’s halls of power, but when asked about House Democrats’ impeachment push, he dismissed it as “political chest-pounding” that he wanted no part of.

Ultimately, true accountability for the role that Uthmeier played in Hope Florida may be left up to the voters during this November’s general election, when the appointed attorney general will finally face the electorate.

José Javier Rodríguez, a former state senator from South Florida, is his Democratic challenger.

For his part, Gaetz said Uthmeier still has his vote.

“I’ll leave that to the people who are running against him to make their case, and to him to make his case,” Gaetz said. “I will vote for the attorney general to be elected.”

Kate Payne is The Florida Trib’s state government reporter. She can be reached at kate.payne@floridatrib.org