Prosecutors in Florida are investigating a charity tied to Casey DeSantis, the state’s first lady, after the nonprofit gave $10 million to political committees backing a campaign led by her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican.
The nature of the investigation is unclear. Any records related to the charity, the Hope Florida Foundation, are exempt from public release as “part of an open, ongoing investigation,” Lori Abbey, a public records custodian for the state attorney’s office in Leon County, Fla., said on Wednesday. The state attorney, Jack Campbell, a Democrat, declined to comment.
The charity is the fund-raising arm of Hope Florida, a project that Ms. DeSantis started in 2021 with the aim of keeping people off public assistance. Her goal was to connect low-income families with churches and local groups that might help them with housing, food or other needs.
The Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald were the first to report on the state investigation, after Mr. Campbell’s office in Tallahassee cited it as the reason for denying a public records request that they had made related to the Hope Florida Foundation.
The foundation came under scrutiny in recent months when Republican state lawmakers and news reporters began investigating its spending. Ms. DeSantis has been mulling whether to run for governor next year to succeed her husband, who is term-limited.
Last year, the foundation quietly received $10 million from a Medicaid contractor, Centene, that had overbilled the state. The foundation then quickly gave the money to two nonprofit political committees that helped Mr. DeSantis and his allies defeat a November ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana.
A State House committee investigated the financial transactions this spring. Then its chairman, State Representative Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, said he had turned over documents and findings to the state attorney’s office.
“I believe that crimes were committed, and that the people engaged in this public corruption should face justice,” Mr. Andrade said in a text message on Wednesday. “I don’t know what law enforcement will ultimately choose to do though. I hope their investigation at least allows us to understand what happened more fully.”
The DeSantis administration has disputed that the $10 million was Medicaid funding, which is highly regulated. But it was part of a settlement related to Centene’s overbilling. Mr. Andrade has referred to what happened with the $10 million as a potential “conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.”
Mr. and Ms. DeSantis have held several public events defending Hope Florida’s work, including one on Tuesday in Tampa during which Mr. DeSantis was asked about the state prosecutor’s investigation.
“This has been a very successful program,” he said. “Everything that’s been thrown at it is pure politics.”