State Attorneys Warn TV Stations Over Hope Florida Ads Ahead of Statewide AG Race
A legal fight over grand jury secrecy and a Democratic ad targeting Attorney General James Uthmeier is playing out in court as Florida heads toward a statewide election that includes Nature Coast voters.
A dispute over campaign ads referencing a secret grand jury report has drawn two Florida state attorneys into a legal standoff with television broadcasters, with implications for how voters statewide, including those in Levy County, will hear about one of this year’s marquee races: attorney general.
What the letters say
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Suzy Lopez, whose circuit covers Hillsborough County, sent letters Friday to several Tampa Bay television stations, including WTVT-Ch. 13, Spectrum Bay News 9, Telemundo and WTSP-Ch. 10, warning that airing a Florida Democratic Party ad about the Hope Florida grand jury investigation could expose the stations to criminal liability. Lopez cited a state law requiring grand jury secrecy, calling a violation a first-degree misdemeanor that could also bring criminal contempt of court. “Whether to proceed is your decision, but you do so at your own legal risk,” she wrote, according to an email obtained by the Tampa Bay Times through a records request.
State Attorney Brian Haas of the 10th Judicial Circuit, covering Hardee, Highlands and Polk counties, sent an identical letter the same day to stations in his area. Neither prosecutor’s circuit includes Levy County, which falls under the 8th Judicial Circuit, but the underlying dispute concerns statewide television advertising and a statewide elected office that every Florida county, including Levy, votes on.
The underlying grand jury fight
The warnings follow an October decision by the 1st District Court of Appeal ordering a Leon County grand jury report on the Hope Florida Foundation expunged. That report had described a “sophisticated scheme” in which DeSantis administration officials allegedly directed $10 million from a Medicaid settlement through the foundation to a political committee opposing a 2024 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana. Judge Lance Neff, a DeSantis appointee who wrote the majority opinion, found no misappropriation of funds and faulted Tallahassee-area State Attorney Jack Campbell for distributing the confidential report too widely and for allowing accusations against named individuals without an indictment.
The ad at issue, sponsored by the Florida Democratic Party, references the leaked report and states that money was “quietly moved into a dark money political committee that James Uthmeier controlled.” Uthmeier, the state’s sitting attorney general and a 2026 candidate to keep the office, previously chaired the Keep Florida Clean committee that fought the marijuana measure. His Democratic challenger, Jose Javier Rodriguez, is named in a Republican Party of Florida lawsuit filed the same day as the state attorneys’ letters, along with gubernatorial candidate David Jolly.
Where the law stands now
Records show Republican Party counsel Ben Gibson emailed broadcasters statewide before the prosecutors did, copying Lopez, Haas and other state attorneys and citing Neff’s opinion. Separately, people named in the now-expunged report asked the appeals court the same day to block further publication; that emergency motion was rejected within hours, though neither filing is public under confidentiality rules.
A judge set a hearing this week but declined to immediately halt the ads, and the Florida Democratic Party says it will keep running them. Bobby Block, executive director of the nonprofit First Amendment Foundation, said the Republican Party’s push “absolutely” raises First Amendment concerns, since the grand jury’s findings have already been reported publicly even though the formal presentment was ordered expunged. “Can the Democratic Party make reference to something that’s already out there in the public?” Block asked. “I think that the court is going to find that it can.”
Why it matters here
No court has ordered any station to stop airing the ad, and no charges have been filed. But the dispute touches a statewide office every county votes for, and the outcome of the pending hearing will shape what Florida broadcasters, and by extension Nature Coast viewers who follow Tampa Bay and Tallahassee coverage, can say about one of the state’s most closely watched 2026 contests. Florida & Cedar Key News will follow the court hearing and any ruling