WLRN has partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check Florida politicians. The Pulitzer Prize-winning team seeks to present the true facts, unaffected by agenda or biases.
Florida's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, state Rep. Angie Nixon, is accusing Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of stealing from sick children.
"Ashley Moody is a lying, cheating, thieving, scamming person who basically took $10 million from sick kids for the Medicaid program," Nixon said Oct. 14 in an interview on CNN. "And she rerouted that into two political slush funds for Ron DeSantis to defeat two citizen-led ballot initiatives."
Nixon is referring to the 2024 Hope Florida controversy, which involved Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration diverting $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation, a charitable nonprofit connected to his wife, Casey DeSantis. Moody was Florida's attorney general at the time.
Most of the money ended up in political action committees with ties to the governor and was used to campaign against Amendment 3 on the 2024 ballot, which sought to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida but did not pass.
Two years later, the story is front and center in Florida's U.S. Senate and attorney general's races, with new developments coming as Floridians cast early votes.
In the CNN interview, Nixon called for Moody to be jailed. When host Kasie Hunt asked whether there's enough evidence to warrant that kind of punishment, Nixon said, "What we are seeing is corruption through and through. And so, I would definitely call for an investigation."
A grand jury report about the Hope Florida controversy, which was supposed to remain secret but was leaked to CBS News Miami in August, said the DeSantis administration "misappropriated" $10 million in taxpayer money as part of "a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities."
On Oct. 7, a state appeals court ordered that the grand jury report's findings be expunged. The court said the grand jury "exceeded its authority" by declaring funds misappropriated and accusing people of criminal conduct without indicting anyone. It also dismissed that the funds were public money.
The Republican Party of Florida sued the state Democratic Party and several statewide candidates over TV ads that describe the grand jury report, then dropped the case a day after a circuit judge refused to pull the ads without a hearing.
Moody addressed Hope Florida in a recent interview, saying, "At this point, any insinuations have been totally political. They're absurd."
Cameron Gambini, Moody's campaign communications director, told PolitiFact in a statement, "The First District Court of Appeal ruling speaks for itself."
Whether it was "stealing," as Nixon said, has not been substantiated, and no one involved faces criminal charges. The extent of Moody's involvement is not clear in available documentation.
Funds stem from a Medicaid drug overcharge settlement
Centene Corp., Florida's largest Medicaid contractor, first contacted Florida officials in 2021 to settle the company's claims that it overbilled the state's Medicaid program for prescription drugs. It wasn't until September 2024 that the state Agency for Health Care Administration finalized and executed a $67 million settlement.
The agency negotiated the agreement, which included a provision that $10 million would be donated to the Hope Florida Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Hope Florida welfare initiative launched by first lady Casey DeSantis in 2021.
The Agency for Health Care Administration received the settlement payment from Centene in late September 2024 and sent $10 million to the foundation. By October 2024, the foundation sent $5 million apiece to two nonprofits.
Within days, the nonprofits wired $8.5 million to the Keep Florida Clean political action committee. Headed by DeSantis' then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier, the PAC was created to fight the recreational marijuana ballot initiative. Keep Florida Clean later sent millions of dollars to the Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Freedom Fund, another DeSantis-aligned PAC that Uthmeier chaired at the time.
Medicaid money is intended for healthcare, primarily for children, pregnant women and disabled, low-income people. Medicaid settlement funds must be placed in a state trust fund to support public health programs, according to Floridalaw, with a portion owed to the federal government, which co-funds Medicaid.
The DeSantis administration has denied any wrongdoing. Democrats say because Centene overcharged the Medicaid program, the full amount should have gone into the state's healthcare coffers to help low-income families and that the administration effectively deprived that group of money.
The appeals court disagreed, saying in its Oct. 7 order expunging the grand jury report that the $10 million sent to Hope Florida was "never public money." The money "neither reimbursed the State for losses from Centene's overcharges nor ever became the property of the State of Florida, as the transfer of the funds was directly from Centene to Hope Florida," the court said.
This mirrors the DeSantis administration's position that the $10 million wasn't part of the settlement but served as an extra, private donation from Centene.
The court's order didn't mention that state officials reimbursed the federal government for its share of the $10 million, akin to how it handles public Medicaid money.
Emails show that Centene initially offered the state $67 million, with no Hope Florida donation. After a briefing at the governor's office, the state asked Centene to redirect $5 million of the payment as a donation to Hope Florida and later upped it to $10 million.
It's not unheard of for some settlement money to be diverted to nonprofits that could help the people harmed by the action that led to the settlement, experts previously told PolitiFact.
But Hope Florida Foundation's case was atypical. The organization had no contract with the Agency for Health Care Administration, no record of delivering Medicaid services and wasn't meeting reporting requirements for its nonprofit status, experts said. If a state agency reaches a settlement and donates some to a nonprofit, the donation is typically considered public funds under Florida law.
Moody's office, other state agencies approved the settlement
Moody's attorney general's office approved the agreement, though available documents don't make clear the extent of her involvement. The grand jury said it wasn't able to bring charges because witnesses couldn't remember details about who proposed the transfer.
Centene's lawyers insisted during negotiations that Moody's office or Florida's Inspector General's office be listed in the settlement agreement, according to records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald.
John Guard, then Moody's chief deputy attorney general, attempted to remove references to the attorney general during the drafting process, records showed. In the end, Guard signed the agreement, saying Moody had approved it.
Moody downplayed her office's role in an Oct. 13 radio interview. She said the settlement included three other agencies that reviewed it for "legal sufficiency."
"So I think any questions regarding that settlement needs to be directed to that agency, AHCA," she said.
Experts previously said that although Moody didn't sign the agreement, she is responsible for her office's actions.
Centene "insisted the (attorney general) be involved in the settlement because they were concerned about the unusual aspects of the deal and wanted to make sure they were legally protected," said Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political science professor. "(Moody) was the chief legal officer for the state of Florida at the time, and if she had raised an objection, the deal would not have happened."
Sources
- CBS News, Face the Nation transcript, Oct. 18, 2026
- CNN, CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt transcript, Oct. 14, 2026
- iHeart, Ashley Moody on Her Florida Senate Campaign, Trump and the Issues Shaping Florida, Oct. 13, 2026
- PolitiFact, Alexander Vindman overstates what is known about Ashley Moody's role in Hope Florida scandal, Aug. 13, 2026
- The Associated Press, Hope Florida: A timeline of how a DeSantis-backed state charity was accused of wrongdoing, April 28, 2025
- The Florida Trident, Hope Florida timeline of key events, Oct. 2, 2026
- CBS News Miami, Grand jury finds DeSantis administration "misappropriated" $10 million in taxpayer money to Hope Florida, Aug. 26, 2026
- CBS News Miami, Appeals court strikes down grand jury report in Hope Florida case; DeSantis declares victory, Oct. 11, 2026
- Florida First District Court of Appeal, IN RE: LEON COUNTY GRAND JURY PRESENTMENT, FALL OF 2025., Oct. 7, 2026
- The Florida Trident, UPDATED: Republicans want Hope Florida story silenced and jail for anyone who talks about it, Oct. 18, 2026
- Tampa Bay Times, Judge who struck Hope Florida report is DeSantis appointee with government background, Oct. 9, 2026
- Tampa Bay Times, Lawyers distanced clients from Hope Florida Medicaid deal, records show, Aug. 12, 2025
- Tampa Bay Times, Lawmaker will subpoena Florida attorney general in DeSantis charity probe, April 14, 2025
- Open Secrets, State ballot measures attract more than $417 million ahead of Election Day, Oct. 30, 2024
- Florida Centene Settlement agreement, 2024
- Florida Statutes, 409.967 Managed care plan accountability, Accessed August 2026
- Florida Statutes, 20.425 Agency for Health Care Administration; trust funds., Accessed August 2026 Merriam-Webster, misappropriated; misappropriating; misappropriates, Accessed Oct. 19, 2026
- The Florida Phoenix, DeSantis administration confirms it reimbursed feds for $10M Hope Florida payment, Feb. 23, 2026Centene email, July 25, 2024
- Centene initial settlement draft, Sept. 5, 2024
- AHCA emails, Sept. 9, 2024; exhibits and agenda for governor's office briefing, Sept. 10, 2024
- Centene settlement draft, Florida response Sept. 11, 2024, Sept. 13, 2024Florida Statutes, 215.97 Florida Single Audit Act, Accessed Aug. 2026
- Email interview, Cameron Gamini, campaign communications director for Sen. Ashley Moody, Oct. 22, 2026
Copyright 2026 WLRN
