Published by the Florida Center for Government Accountability
Florida judge orders DeSantis to hand over migrant flights records
Politico by Gary Fineout
A Florida judge on Tuesday found that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office is not following the state’s public records law and ordered the administration to turn over records connected to the migrants flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard within the next 20 days.
Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh rebuffed arguments from the governor’s lawyers that they should be allowed to wait until Dec. 1 to hand over records, including phone and text logs belonging to James Uthmeier, the governor’s chief of staff who was involved in the operation to fly nearly 50 mostly-Venezuelan migrants to the vacation island.
“The governor has been held accountable to his constitutional duty to provide public access to records,” said Michael Barfield, director of public access for Florida Center for Government Accountability, the open government group that brought the lawsuit. “The rule of law has prevailed.”