Florida grand jury says DeSantis administration misused $10 million, but declined to file criminal charges

A Florida grand jury concluded that the DeSantis administration misused $10 million in taxpayer money by diverting funds to a charity connected to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s wife, but it declined to file criminal charges after determining there was not enough evidence to establish who, specifically, was responsible, according to a report Tuesday from The Washington Times.

The finding, as described in the reporting, centered on the grand jury’s assessment of how the $10 million was handled once it was diverted, and whether prosecutors could meet the evidence threshold required for criminal cases. The grand jury’s decision not to bring charges means the matter moved forward as a finding rather than a prosecution.

The report said the grand jury declined to file charges because it lacked evidence indicating which individuals were specifically responsible for the alleged misuse. That threshold issue, prosecutors’ inability to identify accountable actors on the evidence available, is typically what prevents a case from proceeding even when wrongdoing is described in terms of improper handling of public funds.

The charity at issue is characterized in the report as being connected to DeSantis’s wife. While the grand jury’s decision reflects a conclusion that taxpayer funds were misused, the lack of criminal charges indicates the investigation did not produce enough proof, at least in the grand jurors’ view, to support a criminal accountability determination against named individuals under Florida law.

The practical effect of the decision is that the case is unlikely to become a criminal prosecution in the near term, absent new evidence that could support additional investigative steps. The report indicates that the evidentiary gap, not disagreement about the administration’s conduct in the abstract, was central to the refusal to charge.

Beyond the immediate outcome, the episode highlights how the grand jury process works in Florida criminal procedure, including the role of evidence in identifying specific responsible parties. Even when government conduct is found to be improper, criminal cases typically require proof that can be tied to identifiable individuals and their conduct, not only a generalized assessment that funds were diverted improperly.

For DeSantis and the administration, the decision creates continuing political and public accountability questions, but it does not itself establish criminal liability. The record described in the report also suggests that any further scrutiny would likely depend on other legal pathways, such as civil enforcement or additional investigative efforts, if those options are supported by further evidence.