The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Death of a Dynasty

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Billy Corben pours over the elections results out of the city of Miami, including joyful glee at the fact that the Carollo political dynasty is over. Chad & Stephanie Trausch, as well as their lawyer Suranjan Sen, joins the show to talk about their land theft extortion case vs. the city of Miami. And Florida state representative Alex Andrade gives us an update on the Hope Florida Foundation's fraud investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They won't have me to kick around and blame me for something besides the other stuff they're trying to blame me for. Goodbye Crazy Joe, may you never know happiness. You were scourged for decades here, a giant festering abscess. Say sorry to Miami. Read the fire is why. being such a whiny bitch as your career comes crashing down like from that ladder like you did this is very very unpleasant and it seems to me your whole career was like a teabox to the dome and it's funny that the feds came to invade your home

Bring the popcorn. And to pina this rota and your legacy's disgrace. This is not your little Twitter account, Little Billy. And your daughters cannot stand

your hideous fat face. Oh, my God, hurting my mom. Your constituents discarded you like a sack of moldy cheese. They could put me the street if they want to.

You're going to have to find some other way to pay your legal fees. I wish to go to Shangri-law. You lying, wife-beating scumbag.

Not going to lie. I'm a little emotional. I got a little choked up there. A little tear, little for clems, got Schipelke's and my connectica's going, a little overcome with emotion there. It is the end of an era because not only, of course,

is Joe Corrello term limited and leaving office, but his brother, Frank Correjo, who held the District 3 City of Miami Commission seat for the eight years prior to Joe, and then Joe had it for eight years, but he was running again

to take over, his old seat and his brother, his older brother's seat, and he lost. Frank Corroyo lost to a political newcomer. Rolando Escalano, he is the general manager at Sexy Fish, a very famous and successful restaurant, probably one of the highest grossing restaurants in town, if not the country. And he came from Cuba, I think 10, 11, 12 years ago. And he is now, not just the city of Miami commissioner for District 3, the Little Havana neighborhood. but he toppled the Coroio dynasty. So now in City Hall, Miami, there's no Suarez, no Corroyo, no Diaz La Portia, no Hiro de Puta,

like no Hardiman, they're all like there's no, none of these legacy names anymore. And of course, we elected a new city mayor. Eileen Higgins, the first female mayor in the history of the city of Miami toppled Emilio Gonzalez. 59% of the vote she got to Emilio's 41% of the vote. Man, it's really too bad that you burnt that bridge there, Billy. Dude, our job here in a democracy, we're not in a cult, is to hold people accountable. That's it. We're not here to make friends.

We're here to make sure that we elect decent people and we make sure that they do what they promise to do and help more. people than they harm. And that's certainly not been the case for the last eight years in the city of Miami. I hope that Eileen Higgins will do better. The press all around the world has been crazy for this because not only did we elect our first female mayor in the city of Miami, it's the first Democrat in about 28 years. Even the headline at Fox News is Democrats end 30 year losing streak in Miami as Trump-backed candidate falls short. Foles short, dude, by like 19 points. So the question is, should Republicans be scared at this outcome? This is the question. This is what everybody's, I mean, look at the press. The press is a little

blown out of proportion. A stunning upset is the headline at the Guardian. Not a stunning upset. The margin is pretty extraordinary, but this was always going this way. There's nothing stunning about this. It was abundantly clear that this was going to happen. You may recall our interview with Emilio Gonzalez last week had the tone of an autopsy on a living patient a little bit. It was almost like a postmortem. I was asking him about the strategy of making this such a heavily partisan race, getting endorsed by Ron DeSantis, getting endorsed by Ted Cruz, getting endorsed by Donald Trump. Not a good move. I think Donald Trump really put the last nail in his coffin of that campaign. And you look at some of these

other headlines, you know, it's all about the fact that he was the Trump endorsed candidate, Emilio. And the spin is like, oh, Donald Trump is losing his touch. She's losing the Cuban vote. Miami is flipped to Democrat. It's not really an accurate narrative because the city of Miami is different from Miami-Dade, which flipped red for the first time in a presidential election last year. I don't think it's really indicative of the way that Florida is going in general.

I think there's no doubt that next year, if the economy continues on this trajectory, and they continue executing the deportation scheme, the way that they have. have there's going to be a blue wave nationally. Florida remains, and even South Florida remains somewhat immune to that sanity and reason and logic. I'm remiss to read too much into it. It's definitely a major duty moral victory for Democrats. The Miami Day Democrats really needed a signature win to help with Moribund fundraising and the statewide party. There's going to be a lot of grifting and fundraising on this whole, you know, Florida is in play 2.0. which was the big lie that the Florida Democrats told people last year.

But this is very good for morale at the moment for a party that is a dead brand in the state of Florida. Because here's the thing nobody's talking about is that while Eileen Higgins flipped the city, quote unquote, flip the city of Miami Blue, her departure, her resignation at the county, flip the county commission red. So like, give a little, get a little. And also remember, we've talked about this a thousand times on this show by charter. the Miami mayor doesn't have a lot of responsibilities. They're effectively a mascot sitting in the head coach's office with his feet on the table, you know, her feet on the table. It's really a hood ornament position. It's a lot of ceremonial shit ribbon cutting, passing out keys to the city. But one thing she does get to do is hire a city manager, which means that Art General Manuel Noriega is out the door. And he should have been fired at least two years ago, at least. But this is how the Miami Mafia works. It's mutually assured destruction. They all have dirt on everybody. And if you will look out and protect the Miami Mafia,

the Miami Mafia will look out and protect you. And that's kind of where we are right now. You got to give Eileen Higgins her props and her flowers and give her an opportunity to distinguish herself and what this administration is going to look like. And another runoff race this week that I took a particular interest in was in the city of Miami Beach, the commission seat of Monica Mateo Salinas versus Monique Pardo Pope.

You remember Monique Pardo, your girl, Monique? I'm a girl. Your girl, Monique, whose father was a corrupt cop, coke-dealing neo-Nazi serial killer, and she tried to keep that from voters during this election cycle. And it was a story that we broke online, and right here on the Because Miami podcast, it resulted in her making some, telling some defamatory lie about me. to the press and a bar complaint against her. So she'll still be an ongoing story,

but she is very much not a city of Miami Beach Commissioner Monica Mateo Salinas beat Monique Pardo Pope with 71% of the vote. Monique Pardo Pope. I was never good at that there, book learning, Roy, and I didn't know there was going to be math on the show today.

That's that new math. But that new math on the show today, but Monique Pardo Pope got not quite 29% of the vote. That's 2,185 votes versus 5,357 votes. This also became a bit of a proxy, like, partisan battle. Monica being supported by the Democrats, Monique being supported by the Republicans. No kidding. And very much, well played, right, very much a repudiation like what happened on the other side of the causeway in the city of Miami, where you had Eileen Higgins beating Emilio Gonzalez by 19%. here you had 71% to 29% and you had a situation like in the city of Miami for example I think it was a plus seven Democratic turnout but a plus 19 win for the Democratic candidate which means of course that Eileen Higgins way over indexed with not just NPAs but Republicans same thing here with Monica Mateo Salinas she way over performed so bottom line is for this runoff election where turnout in Miami Beach was 17.71 percent you had Republicans who showed up to vote who was considered the Democratic candidate. So it really is a repudiation of not just the party politics, but Monique Pardo Pope as a candidate herself, absolutely toxic.

And I don't have carts in the studio. So I get nothing in here. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the auxiliary studio right now. The Britney strings. But I want to say this, party politics infecting these municipal. nonpartisan races is absolutely toxic and it's exploitative too because the candidates only

really take advantage of it to get elected and once they're there especially in in miami dade county there's no red in blue it's just green they are there for their money and their power and they will do anything to preserve that including protecting each other with mutually assured destruction. And it really is kind of repulsive to me because particularly in local government where we really need people focusing on the bread and butter issues, the local issues, the pothole kind of issues that affect our lives all the time, water and power and sewer and traffic and affordability and the things that just impact us. Like to inject the WWE element of culture wars and party partisan politics, it really.

doesn't make for better local government. We've seen what it's done on the national level and it's far less helpful here when it comes to what we need from our local government and what we should expect from it. That said, congratulations to Monica, Mateo Salinas, the new Miami Beach Commissioner. Congratulations to Rolando Escalona, the new city of Miami Commissioner who toppled the Corrello dynasty. And congratulations to Eileen Higgins, the first female mayor in the history of the city of Miami, a city founded by a woman, one of the few major cities in America that was founded by a woman. And of course, the first Democrat to sit in that seat in about 28 years. Have you heard of Goldbelly? It's this amazing site that I personally order from all the time.

They bring you the most iconic, famous foods from restaurants all across the United States, and they'll ship it anywhere in the country, even to me right here in South Florida. It's perfect for hosting loved ones, and honestly, it makes for a magical, unforgettable gift that people will talk about for years. I recently purchased my wife some cheesecake for our anniversary, and it was delicious. That was from Juniors. But Goldbelly can send you show-stopping meals from the country's best steakhouses, or the iconic Joe Stonecrab right here in Miami. The desserts?

Martha Stewart's cakes? It all shows up at your door to make the holidays feel special. And gifting is so easy with Goldbelly. You could send things like Laudre macarons. And every time I've ordered from Goldbelly, the quality has been simply incredible. The shipping's easy. Everything arrives perfectly packed. And honestly, kind of way better than I expected it to be the first time I tried ordering food online.

So if you're looking for that perfect gift for everyone on your list, or want to impress your friends and family with an unforgettable meal and make hosting a breeze this holiday season, go to goldbelly.com and get 20% off your first order with the promo code Dan. That's goldbelly.com, code Dan, for 20% off your first order. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 94. 48 teams, these giant stadiums, the whole continent turning into one massive party, I cannot wait.

But actually getting tickets to any of this? Yeah, that part is brutal. That's why the game time map has been a total lifesaver. It gives the advantage back to us. The fans. You can track price drops in real-time, get alerts when seats open up, grab tickets the second they hit the app, all backed by the game time guarantee. I'm on the app looking at World Cup matches in Miami because you know I'm not missing that. I'm scrolling through every section in the building.

Behind the goal, midfield, lower bowl, upper ball, and the deals are good. I had great seats locked in within minutes. The experience is so simple and intuitive. Two taps and I'm done. And the price, no surprises. Fees are included. The seat views are my favorite feature. You get a full panoramic look before you buy.

and I love zone deals. Game Time picks a seat and we save even more. Take the guest work out of buying soccer tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code damn for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code D-A-N for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go.

Download the GameTime app today. New Day, same Miami. Yes, there is a new incoming mayor and city commissioner, but the lawsuits against the city and accusations of malfeasance civil and criminal continue. We've got, of course, the ongoing parking tax litigation, which could wind up costing the taxpayers about $114 million for the city allegedly improperly collecting a parking tax. There is the $76 million lawsuit. claiming that the city overcharged building permit fees, which just survived, I believe, a motion to dismiss.

So that is ongoing. You, of course, have a lawsuit against the city that could bankrupt the city. It's the famous ball and chain lawsuit. This is the third one, accusing people in the city of weaponizing the government to violate the private property and First Amendment rights of private landowners in the city. When you lay it out like this, it sounds pretty shady. Roy. And now the latest is what I would guess could describe as the city of Miami government being accused of a land theft extortion scheme. Let's clear it up. Chad and Stephanie

Trouche are suing the city of Miami as homeowners who were just trying to build a little something on their private property. And the city attack. certain conditions to that and said, hey, if you want to, you know, you want to make your pretty property look a little pretty, maybe you should give us a little something in return. And now they're suing the shit out of the city. And their attorney, Sarangensen, of the Institute for Justice, that is IJ.org. All of them are joining us now. Chad and Stephanie, thanks for being here.

I want to start with you. Tell me about what happened here. You were recent transplants to Miami when and you did what you're supposed to do, right, which is to go to the city to pull a permit down in 2021 from New York. We bought a home with the hopes of growing it to support a growing family. We wanted to have some kids. We wanted to have in-laws come down and help with child care. So we bought our home in historic Bonavista East.

We want to do everything by the book. We went through the full historic approval on everything. And we're doing an addition in the back. And then as the last condition, the city said, oh, you have to give us about. half of your front yard to get that permit for your addition in the back. Okay, to be half of your front yard, that's what they asked. That's right. But, yeah, 500 square feet.

So 10 feet deep from the property line, which is 50 feet across. Real quick, you were doing this by the book. So you clearly were, you know, looking at, you know, the charter and the ordinances. Was this anywhere written that homeowners have to give up some of their private property to the city? So with certain conditions and a real justification, in our case, there was. no justification we've asked for one over and over and over emails calls meetings nothing total radio silence so without any reason to take our land we thought they shouldn't be taking in our land so you said okay you're asking for this what do you need it for why do you need is that what you

sort of said follow-up question exactly what do you need it for why if our addition is totally in the back why do you need the front and is there any plan to use this land and the answer was either no or just complete radio silence on all channels so nothing happens then you you don't get the permit. Is that right? And for how long? We got totally frozen. That's right, Billy. We've been in permit purgatory for over a year now. The city's trying to extort our land. They've definitely extorted our time emotionally, too. My wife's had to move in with her parents in South Carolina a few times for child care. She spent time with my parents up in Maine while I've stayed here to work my job,

take care of the house and fight this lawsuit. Oh, so your hope was to build like an in-law quarters or a guest house or something in your backyard for child care? Exactly right. We started this project before our baby was. born. She's 15 months old now. Congratulations. And you always have an ADU for live in support from our in-laws or from my parents to help raise a kid and keep the family together. Incidentally,

a year and a half, nothing's become cheaper in this country, particularly in this town with respect to construction. So whatever the cost of this project would have been a year and a half ago, it has to be exponentially higher

now. It's gone up by hundreds of thousands of dollars. And in labor, material, building costs, just to be made whole and do the project we originally set out to do. It's crazy. Did you get the permit? Have you gotten the permit? Where are you now?

We have not gotten the permit yet. They have released that condition they put on to give up our land as soon as our lawyer showed up. I started fighting this case totally by myself earlier this year. IJ came in, thankfully, to support us. And as soon as IJ showed up, the city said, oh, never mind. We don't want the land and tried to make it go away. perfect segue to your lawyer showing up on the scene serangian first of all clearly just your

arrival in the situation got the city to change its stance somewhat but what have you discovered here about this again sometimes these things seem shady and maybe there's an innocent explanation for them what is it that you have found through this and uncovered here before answered that the end of your question if I could just touch on the beginning of it which was about the circumstances around IJ's involvement and the city's response to that. As Chad said, he filed the lawsuit pro se by himself earlier this year, some six, seven months ago or more, and the city was content to fight against him so long as it was Chad by himself. And that was after the city had been delaying his permit over this

unconstitutional and unlawful condition for more than a year. As soon as IJ filed our notice of appearance in his case, officially taking it over, the city then in just about, two or three weeks filed a letter saying that actually they decided that they were going to waive his permit condition, even though they had officially told Chad when he first sought a waiver of that condition more than a year earlier that they denied his waiver and that was a final decision and his permit condition would not be issued unless he would give up his land. They've not given any kind of explanation as to why they've decided more than a year and a half after the fact and two and a half weeks after Chad got formal legal representation, why actually they've decided to waive it.

But I think it probably speaks for itself. It sounds like they never provided an explanation for why they wanted to take this private property away from them in the first place. So why would they provide an explanation for the sudden about face, right? That's a good point, Chad. And I think that segues into the first question that you asked me directly, which was what we discover about what's actually going on here. Unfortunately, Chad and Steph's situation is not at all unique. Miami. We've discovered that Miami has been enforcing what I would call, frankly, an extortion racket across the entire city where what they've done is some time ago in the recent past,

some years ago, we don't know exactly when. Someone in the city decided that they wanted to expand public right of ways to match base building lines. And so the public right of ways where the city can build a street, where the city can make landowners maintain the public sidewalks, where landowners, they might own it on paper and fee simple, the deed, but you can't really exclude any members of the public from the public right of way. And so the case law is quite clear that whenever the city wants to expand or take a public right of way, it has to provide owners compensation for that. Now, the base building line is where the owner still owns all the right to the property, the owner can exclude people from that area, but the owner's just not allowed to build up to that base building line. So it's like a setback line from the street. So the city decided at some point that they wanted to expand the public rights of way.

But without paying, though. That's right. They wanted to expand it, but they don't want to pay for it. So do they wait for the homeowners in exchange for giving us something that we wanted, right? So they would use an opportunity for us. You know, we want to invest in our land. We want to make it better while they have something we want. You know, why don't we give them something in return?

Is this a scheme? Serentian is this scheme they wait for the homeowners to come to them and say, hey, can I please get a permit? They're like, hey, you know what we want? That's right. The scheme is, is that everybody, anywhere in the city, if you need a land use permit for anything, whether that's to remodel a bathroom, whether that is to add an extra bedroom, whether that's to expand your kitchen, anything at all that requires land use permit, a swimming pool in the backyard, one of the conditions they will attach to that permit is that you seed the land that represents the difference between the current public right-of-way and your building setback line. So IJ's, we have identified 66 streets that include over 1,000 homes and businesses of people who have either been subjected to this demand in the last several years or who are in danger of being subjected to it the next time they need a land-use permit for anything.

The director of the city's public works department testified under oath that they've issued this demand against hundreds of people already. I saw that. That's, of course, very compelling, is that this is not a unique case, obviously. This is when you have someone sworn testimony from someone who works at the city admitting that they have done this already, quote, hundreds and quote of times. The public works director, too. That was his deposition. So let me ask you this, though, about this map. I've seen it on your website, the 66 streets, the over. 1,000 houses that are threat to this scheme. What does that mean? Why have you isolated it to this? And of the hundreds that they've already admitted to trying to shake down, why is it these 1,000 plus homes at risk of the scheme, you say? It's because those 66 streets are the streets where the

standard public right of way is less than the building setback line. And so what the city is doing is every time any landowner needs a land use permit. I got it. They look to say, see is that building setback line, does that exceed the current public right of way? If it does, then we're going to demand that the landowner give the difference to expand the public right of way. I understand. And if you look at the maps, if you look at the maps of the city's GIS maps of the current property lines, current public rights of way, you can actually see where it zigzags on all these streets. And one can infer that every time it zigzags to where the public right of way is is closer to the home. And then it goes back.

out that the city has demanded that the owner of that parcel give up the public right of way up to the building setback line without compensation. So Sarangian, you sound like a lawyer when you talk about this and that's probably because you are a lawyer. Stephanie, I want to ask you about, because that's the thing here is that we talk about these things in very sort of legal and esoteric terms about setbacks and all this shit. But there is a human toll to this. Every single one of these homes has people and families and husbands and wives and grandmas and grandpas and children and these are this is where you live and this is where you are building a family and trying to enjoy a life and what is this just been like when you try to do the right thing you try to

I mean first of all welcome to Miami I mean I don't know what you thought you guys were getting yourselves into when you moved down here but bienvenitos I always say if anybody actually watched one city commission meeting they would never move here by a house here open a business here and vest here. You look for a city with a more stable government like say Caracas or something but nevertheless you guys made the decision to come here. You made the decision to build

a home and a family here and just what does it feel like when you go to your government who is supposed to be helping you and is supposed to be maybe we're a little naive and idealistic but everybody told us not to take this on that we were never

going to win. Our architects said if you have a path you should fight it. But look, we have clients who have just given up the land. They tried for years and they eventually just gave up the land. We spoke to a dozen lawyers before IJ agreed to represent us for free. And we would never be able to afford a million dollar legal representation for this. So we're really doing this for the people and for everyone else after us who has to be put in this situation. Talk about the emotional and the monetary toll, right?

like we were supposed to have a home for our family, for our growing family, and space to support it. And, you know, things have been falling apart. Our fence is falling apart. Our air conditioning has had issues. Don't try to pull a permit for the fence. Good, Buenos Suerte. Good luck with that. Exactly. Exactly. I've had to move in with my parents' house. He's had to move into some place where he can like work and quiet. The family has had to spend time apart. And this just, this isn't right, right? So when you think about, and we ask ourselves a question, did we make the right decision to get legal representation to drag this out and to fight against a city when everybody told us we would never win? I think it's a win if other people after us don't have to go through the situation, right? It's not right for a landowner.

Somebody who's invested in the city decides they want to make a future and raise their growing family who are taxpayers. it's not right for them to like hit these roadblocks because the city wants to take land because they can right the government is supposed to work for its people they're not supposed to extort us when we're sort of vulnerable to to something that that we're asking for them so she's exactly right i mean i'm a u.s military veteran and just the feeling is totally un-american Stephanie they don't call it our amy okay you've had to you've had to learn that lesson the hard way And I'm sorry, but you are what's happened to you, but you are doing the right thing. The reason why people say you can't fight City Hall is for the three reasons you've already cited,

the financial toll, the emotional toll. And in a town like this, it's hard to get representation who will go up against the city because people are scared of their government. It's not supposed to be that way. You know, what do they say? The government should be scared of the people. The people shouldn't be scared of the government. But that's what happens.

You have law firms and people who have an interest in the city and don't want to be targeted by their own government and don't want their own government and don't want the retaliation. And so they're too scared to even bring a suit. And so good for the Institute for Justice. And Saranjad, I'm going to give you the last word. We're wrapping up now. But if there are other homeowners in Miami here who might be affected by this or have already been affected and are extorted by the city, what should they do? They feel free to contact us. You can go to IJ.org and we have a case intake sheet. And in fact, right now we're working on setting up on Chad's, there's a case page that you can find for Chad and Stephanie on our.

website. We're right now looking at setting up a form that people can contact us because we do expect that hundreds of people, as the city's director has testified, have had to give up their land, and hundreds, potentially thousands more are in danger of having to do so. Saran Jensen.I.J.org. Chad and Stephanie Trouche, good luck to you and Merry Christmas. Thank you very much. Thanks so much for having. Thanks for all you do, Billy. Hey, folks, it's Mike Ryan. Happy holidays to you and to our tremendous partners of Almost 20 years, Miller Light. It's the 50th anniversary of Miller Light.

It makes the holidays special. It makes the football games special. It makes family gatherings and friendship time extra special. I make all those times Miller Time. And during the holidays, most of my favorite memories start the exact same way. I crack open a Miller Light, take a look around to my friends and family, and think, yeah, this was a right call. Whether it's a late night hang after a holiday party or standing around a fire pit with a family, Miller Light just fits. It's a taste you know you can depend on.

and it's brewed for flavor with simple ingredients like malted barley, rich balanced toffee notes, and that iconic golden color. And at just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces, it lets you enjoy the season without weighing you down. Miller Lite, great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlight.com slash day and find delivery options near you,

or you can pick up some Miller light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Tis Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. One touchdown can change everything, the crowd, the momentum, the entire game. It never gets hold.

Feel the same rush with Draft King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. And Missouri listeners listen up, the Show Me State, baby. Draft King Sportsbook is now live in the Show Me State. New customers download the Draft King's sportsbook app and use code Dan. That's code Dan, D-A-N, bet just five bucks and get $200 bucks in bonus bets. If your bet wins in partnership with Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem call 1-800 gambler. In New York, call 8778-8-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y 4667-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called 888-78-7-7 or visit ccppg. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casinoin Resort in Kansas, pass-through of per-wager tax may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required. Four additional terms and response. Gaming Resources, see dKNG.co slash audio. Limited time offer.

Prosecutors at the Leon County Courthouse are taking their Hope Florida investigation behind closed doors, reportedly convening a grand jury this week. We have, at this point, information that tends to show that our Attorney General committed money laundering and wire fraud. State lawmakers asking tough questions about how $10 million was funneled into a nonprofit called Hope Florida. not into a state bank account. And charity was spearheaded by First Lady Casey DeSantis. That cash quickly went out the door to two nonprofits for $5 million grants

and promises that the money would be used to further hope Florida's mission, not politics. But those nonprofits later gave millions to a political committee fighting and defeating last year's recreational weed amendment, Keep Florida Clean, a group chaired by former DeSantis Chief of Staff turned Attorney General James Uthmeyer. There is now a criminal grand jury apparently convened in Leon County to investigate a story we brought to earlier this year with our guest, Alex Andrade of Florida Republican representative, who was the chair of the House Healthcare Budget Subcommittee, who launched this investigation into Casey DeSantis's nonprofit organization, a Hope Florida Foundation, and these very suspicious kind of pass-through donations that wound up. up in the coffers of these two nonprofits that had never received any kind of money like this

before. Hope Florida, I think never donated this kind of money before. And it caught some attention. And now apparently is under criminal investigation. Representative Andrade, first up, there seems to be new news this past week in the investigation. And I was wondering if you could help kind of walk us through this. The headline is that there were some repayments from a state agent. to Medicaid that are, I guess, are evidence perhaps in and of themselves of what happened here to

this money and how this money was classified. Can you kind of walk us through that? Yeah, absolutely. So I felt almost clairvoyant. So for the folks that, you know, may have heard some of the responses to my claims earlier this year, you know, there was a $67 million dollar Medicaid settlement between a Medicaid contractor and the state. Earlier this year, $67 million was supposed to go back to the state. At the very last minute, $10 million, that $67 was shaved off and sent to the Hope Florida Foundation. When we initially started delving into that, there was a big fight. The agency for health care administration was swearing up and down using like the legal equivalent of pseudoscience to argue that the 10 million that was taken off the top of this settlement was not taxpayer money, was not Medicaid money. And so in response to the pseudo-science, science arguments, I just said, okay, well, how much are we paying the feds back? Because for every dollar we collect on Medicaid fraud settlement, we have to pay the feds back their share of the Medicaid dollar. The feds pay 57.2% of every dollar we as a state spend on Medicaid.

So every time we collect a dollar back into Medicaid fraud settlement, we owe 57.2 cents back to the federal government. If the $10 million was not Medicaid money, then we would have paid $32 million back to the feds. Instead, we paid $38 million back to the feds. So even though ACCA and the governor and James Uthmeyer all swore up and down, this $10 million was not Medicaid money, we sure as heck paid the federal share back to the feds of that $10 million that James Uthmeyer stole. So that's a bit of a telltale clue, right? It was either one amount owed or another amount owed based on the very simple equation of whether or not that $10 million would be classified is Medicaid money. So it's Medicaid money, but is the state denying that?

They're no longer commenting. It was kind of like this hilarious game of chicken because I just said, okay, how much are we paying the feds back? I can't wait to see you pay the feds back $32 million if you really don't think that $10 million's Medicaid. And then I think some unfortunate employee over at Oka finally had to put their foot down and say, I'm not going to prison for James Euth-Myers theft, right? And so they paid the feds back $38 million. Which is exactly, the precise amount is exactly 57.2% of the $67 million. So ACCA is the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration. And in this Florida politics article headline Alex Entradi Questions, state agency's

repayment in Hope Florida scandal, the quote from ACA, deputy chief of staff, Mallory McManus, in an email to Florida politics when asked about your claims, quote, that is incorrect, end quote. And she did not respond to a request to elaborate and provide additional details. It's priceless. It's comical. And then in April, no facts, no, said just that is incorrect. Earlier, Governor Ronda Santas described the $10 million as, quote, a cherry on top, end quote, in the settlement, arguing it wasn't truly from Medicaid money. He said in this past April, quote, when you do settlements, you can control.

try to get as much money as you can, but this was in addition to what they were getting. All due respect, he's a lawyer. He's a smart guy. He went to a good law school. How was there like a separate pocket? Because even if you want to argue that it went into some separate bucket and they didn't reimburse Medicaid for their portion, then it's still 10 million less than arguably this company would have paid back to the state. Just because you separated out, couldn't the taxpayers still have gotten 67 instead of like that's what I also don't understand like oh no no this is like a cherry in another Sunday it's like no it's if it's a cherry on top then it's part and parcel of the same Sunday it's part and parcel of the same settlement in the same tranche of money so no no

no we negotiated that separately and put it over it's like well are you saying they would have this company would have given hope Florida the 10 million without having to settle what is his point exactly you're making me hungry billy I'm sorry a lot of talk of A lot of talk of ice cream. The most mind-blowing part of all of this is that Centine, the contractor that paid the settlement amounts, they've been offering to pay the state $67 million, the full $67 million since before Hope Florida existed. So, like on September 10th of last year, there was a meeting with the governor's office like James Uthmeyer and the agency where they brought a copy of the settlement agreement draft that made no. reference to Hope Florida in it on September 10th. The very next day after this meeting with the governor's office, Hope Florida gets injected into the settlement. The state's suddenly losing $10 million

is going to this Hope Florida Foundation. Also, the settlement was amended. There were three total payments, the settlement, the executed settlement required Centine to make. It was you have to pay the state $28 million within 45 days and then $28 million a year after that. The only payment, the state required centine to make before the election last November was this payment to Hope Florida. So they gave them seven days to pay Hope Florida $10 million and said, you don't have to pay the state even half of what you owe for 45 days after that. And then you got a year to pay the second half. So you can't tell me this wasn't fraud and James Uthmeyer did not have designs on this money to use it and funnel it to his pack when this whole concept got contrived.

because they're either the worst negotiators in the world, completely incompetent, can't do math, or calculate interest, or they're just, you know, corrupt folks willing to commit some fraud and steal some taxpayer money. I suppose I would say it was the former incompetence in the event that it didn't go to a charity that involved the governor's wife, the First Lady of Florida, that didn't involve his then, what was he, chief of staff at that point, Uthmire, who is now the unelected, appointed. attorney general of the state of Florida. I mean, like it just with the characters involved and what happened with the money once it got there, like the immediacy of the kind of the flow through and the idea that very clearly this 10 million was earmarked five and five to go to those organizations for expressly the purpose that they immediately spent it for, which was for political ads to fight the marijuana legalization constitutional referendum in the state of Florida.

The funniest part is that they promised. Sintin and they promised Sintin that they would use this money for Medicaid purpose, like in the settlement, they included a section saying, like, whereas, you know, the Hope Florida program is going to have an expanded role in Medicaid, and that's where we're going to send them $10 million. Literally, the money went there, and within like a week, it was chopped up by these two groups, and all of it went to James Uthmeyer's pack. There was no follow-up, no discussion with the Hope Florida Foundation about how to use this for Medicaid.

They knew where those money was going from the get-go. They sent it, and it ended up in James' pack in, like, two weeks. And these quantities of money, these, like, are unprecedented in the world of all of these packs, right? I mean, you know, the Hope Florida charity, like, they had never seen dollar figures like this before. It had only raised, like, $2 million prior to getting this 10 million influx. And, like, a charity that it only raised $2 million had only spent $40,000 that year. Within a matter of, like, a week of getting this money, they sent $2, $5 million grants without board votes, without checking with the agency, James Youthmeyer's buddy, Jeff Aaron,

he got magically hired as the lawyer for this foundation. The same day, he tells the board chair for the foundation, hey, the governor's office wants you to do this, just do it. I believe in magic. Do you believe in magic? Sure. But these packs that the money went to, they'd never seen so much money before in their entire existence.

Five million dollars each? No. And if you're, so one was Mark Wilson. He was the CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. He ran a 5-1-1-C-4 called Secure Florida's Future. And then another was Amy Ronshausen. She's the executive director for a group called Save Our Society from Drugs, which had only raised thousands every now and then.

And every now and then, like, is a pass-through to hide the identity of a donor. Amy Ronshausen gets $5 million, the biggest grant she's ever gotten, I think, as the executive director for Save Our Society from drugs, from the governor's wife's charity. and she doesn't turn around and tell her employer the board for Save Our Society from Drugs that she got this money or asked them permission for how to spend it. If I'm Amy and I want my employers to keep me on and maybe give me a raise, I'm bragging about the fact that the governor's wife just gave my organization $5 million.

She told no one. She chopped it up into smaller bits immediately and she sent it all back to James in a matter of days. She believes in magic too. Last question on this before we move on. And what do you say to the people that say this is just some sort of like, you know, it's a proxy war. Internecine Republican fighting sort of like the Maga Trump faction versus the DeSantis faction, you being on the president's side against the governor and that this is just to do political damage to him, his wife, any candidacy for, you know, governor next year.

What's your reaction? I'm not running for anything else. Last I checked, I endorsed DeSantis when he ran for president in the real world. If anyone defrauds a charity or the state of Florida or Medicaid out of millions of dollars, they go to prison. That's what happened here. Just the fact that I'm the one that discovered it doesn't change the fact that James Uthmeyer defrauded the state out of millions of dollars so he could spend Medicaid money buying political ads. And anyone who thinks that you can use Medicaid money to buy political ads is kidding themselves. This has nothing to do with political dynamics.

Has everything to do with our attorney general, the guy who employs, count. countless attorneys right now to prosecute people for Medicaid fraud has stolen more from the Florida Medicaid program than anyone his lawyers are prosecuting. If I'm one of those attorneys, I am so embarrassed, like mortified having to work for this guy. That's in the real world, though. We live in Florida. I got to ask you about this. This is, I'm remiss to say there's a budding bromance going on here with me and you because this headline in the Pensacola News Journal last week, just, I mean, brought a tear to my Chapter 119 loving eye. So for folks who don't know, Chapter 119 is what we call the sunshine laws in the state of Florida.

We're supposed to have government in the sunshine. Those are considered very open government kind of public records laws. The public is supposed to have access to anything and everything within reason and a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable cost or expense if necessary. And the headline is rep Alex Andrade wants to put teeth. back into Florida Sunshine Law and as a journalist, an activist, I'm, you know, availing myself quite frequently of these laws and I cannot tell you. I mean, I don't have to tell you the problem that it is with some of these agencies, particularly locally and statewide for that matter,

trying to get access to not their records, not their property, not their materials, our materials. The work product that is created on our time, on our dime is, taxpayers by so-called public servants who are supposed to be accountable and transparent and answerable to us. And yet, I can't tell you how often I hear basically the equivalent of go pound sand, whether it's they ghost me, whether it's they ask for an exorbitant. I mean, like, deliberately ludicrous and onerous fee to research or whatever, like thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars, just to discourage people from engaging with their

government and investigating their government. what has been your experience and what is the plan here and is there any traction for it i hope there's traction i think there's traction um but yeah i my experience has been the same as yours you know i mean shoot i did a public records request of our current attorney general james utmire and it was ignored for months and then when it politically benefited him he put all these records together sought out one reporter for these records that i'd ask for for months and told this reporter what to think about the records and said that reporter was going to have a two-week exclusive before they shared them with anyone else. This is the Attorney General, the guy that drafts

the manual on complying with the Florida Public Records Act, the government in the Sunshine manual, the guy that tells everyone outside of follow the law, egregiously using, again, you took the words right out of my mouth. Public records, they're not an asset of any public entity. They're an asset of the people. These are the public's records. You and I, we, we We deserve, we are the ones that pay for them, we should have access to them. He took those records that are our records, and he tried to trade on them politically to get some puff pieces written in one news outlet. Again, it's so mortifying to think that the guy telling you everyone else had to follow the

law, either is clueless about the law, or is just willing to just outright, you know, thumb his nose at it and ignore it. It's like rules for thee, not for me. But yeah, I mean, the governor's office disregards public records. get stonewalled. I got stonewalled by the Agency for Health Care Administration. When I first discovered all of this stuff about Hope Florida, I asked them for, hey, can just send me the drafts of all the settlement agreements you had, just so I can get an idea like, when did the Hope Florida stuff get injected? I had to threaten to sue them to get those records. You know, and it's the same

at the local and the state level. People just don't seem to want to, you know, follow the law right now. So we probably should, you know, spell out in statute what good faith is. You know, You've got to respond and outline how long it might take you to produce records within three days. You got to give details. If you're going to say a public record is exempt, you got a cite to the statute before I sue you. Because if I sue you after you don't produce something and you haven't cited of that exemption, you don't get to raise it in a lawsuit now. So I'm like, get out of jail free card. You should as a public servant.

It's a privilege to be in these positions. You should act and be able to exhibit the good faith you have. trying to protect the public trust and a big aspect of the public trust, being willing to turn over your work that you've done as a public servant. I don't care if some communication might look embarrassing. I've turned over records that I'm sure have been embarrassing previously. Like somehow, like maybe I was snarking in an email or something. I've never once thought I should hold that back.

You should comply in good faith. You should produce your records. And the fact that so many people are ignoring it and the fact that the tone is set at the top and DeSantis doesn't seem to care. a lick about public transparency or the public trust is something that I think does need to be corrected. I appreciate it. I respect it. I fear it's going to be a bit of an uphill battle. It reminds me of campaign finance reform. It's like you guys are the ones who are going to be subject to whatever these new rules are and are, you know, are public officials elected's

lawmakers, is going to want to create laws that make things more onerous for them, for their offices, what they conceived to be more invasive or, you know, hold them more accountable. I do want to say one of my favorite misnomer's or least favorite misnomer is about it was when people report that oh this record leaked this document leaked i'm like you can't leak a public record you could release a public record but public records don't leak we are supposed to have them they are supposed to be available and accessible i love that turk because everyone someone leaped this to the press you mean they an email from an elected official from their official government account? Like, you can't leak that. You should just release it all the time.

You're taking the words right out of my mouth. That's another pet beef I have. Like, absolutely. Could not agree more. Representative Alex Andrade, thank you so much. You're now a friend of the show. Roy, does two appearances qualify as friend of the show? Yes, because somebody actually wants to come back. So, yeah, sure. You get, yeah. Magatav. You are now a friend of the show. And thank you. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy holidays to you. Thanks for being here. Merry Christmas, guys. Thank you. what a week, the death of the Coroio dynasty, the rise once again of the Miami Hurricanes football dynasty making the college football playoffs. And our Miami moment, because you know, Roy, we got to bookend the show with Corollos

because we're not going to have Joe to kick around anymore. That's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. And I'm going to miss them. I think we've already established this. The punch him bag. Yes. It feels a little like the end of the dark night.

you know when heath ledger is swinging back and forth in and out of focus upside down and he's like you know we're just going to keep doing this forever i'm not saying which of us is batman and which of us is joker by the way but i feel i feel a little symbiotic with joe now that he's going i thought that we would take a moment to relive one of our intimate moments at a post commission meeting press conference where i tried to ask joe some questions and he did didn't think that I had a right to do that because he's not a big fan of Coma Citi, say the First Amendment, obviously is evidenced by the fact that he owes 63.5 million dollars in a First Amendment retaliation judgment. But who's counting, really? I am. Cocaine's.

You're just lying, Joe. Just answer a question. How are you to do it? Fifty years. And I guess you guys are Sergeant of Arms think that it's okay. It's a press conference, Joe. It's a public building. You can't, you can't weaponize government to arrest the press. You can't arrest the government. You can't arrest the government. Do you. Ask your dog. what she thinks of you. Ask your daughters what she thinks of you. That's a lie. How much did they prove it? Not a penny. Not a penny. You lying, wife beating scumbag.

Thank you.