Ashley Moody is back under scrutiny for her role in the Hope Florida scandal, with questions resurfacing over how her office approved the diversion of $10 million in taxpayer money while she was Florida attorney general. The money was supposed to help expand Medicaid for children in Florida. Instead, it ended up in the bank accounts of two political action committees.
That money mattered because one of the committees was controlled by the governor and his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, and it was used to help defeat Amendment 3 in the 2024 November election. Amendment 3 would have legalized marijuana in Florida. It won 56% of the vote, but that was short of the 60% needed to pass. DeSantis later appointed Moody to the United States Senate in January 2025, two months after the amendment failed, and named Uthmeier to replace her as attorney general.
The path from Medicaid money to political spending is what keeps this story alive. Legislators in the Florida House uncovered the diversion in 2025, and Republican State Rep. Alex Andrade called it a criminal act, saying, “This is a misuse of Medicaid money,” and, “This is money laundering.” A state attorney in Leon County then opened a grand jury investigation, but no charges were brought.
Sources familiar with the case say the grand jury issued a report setting out its findings and concerns. Under state law, that report was supposed to become public within 15 days unless someone named in it objected and sought suppression or redaction. The Florida Center for Government Accountability has asked to intervene to seek access to the report or argue for its release, but the fight over secrecy has not been resolved.
That leaves Moody in an awkward place. She spent 18 months in the United States Senate after two statewide victories in 2018 and 2022, but the controversy now circles back to the way her office handled the diversion in the first place, without the safeguards that would usually be demanded for public money. The unanswered question is no longer whether the money moved. It is who is keeping the report buried, and why the state has not been forced to explain what the grand jury found.
