TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis lost a court ruling Tuesday related to a lawsuit surrounding Florida's migrant flight to Martha's Vineyard in September.
Leon County Judge Lee Marsh demanded the governor's office release more records about the flight including text messages, communications and other documents.
The ruling came about because of a lawsuit from the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
Judge Lee Marsh rules that @GovRonDeSantis failed to comply w/FL’s public records law in a request for records related to text messages, communications & other docs re Martha’s Vineyard immigrant flights filed by @FLCTRGA - must provide records within 20 days. #FLCGAStrikeForce
— Florida Center for Government Accountability (@FLCTRGA) October 25, 2022
The judge ruled that the governor’s office has failed to comply with Florida's public records law, only releasing limited documents related to last month's flight.
On Tuesday, he ordered the governor's office to provide the additional records within 20 days.
The Florida Center for Government Accountability applauded the ruling.
"It's a great day for citizens and the right to know what our government is doing. The governor violated state laws that required public records be released. No-one is above the law."
The governor's office said Wednesday they intend to appeal the judge's decision.
Below is the full statement released by DeSantis' press secretary, Bryan Griffin:
"We disagree with the court's ruling and intend to appeal. This records request came amid a historically devastating hurricane and the Executive Office of the Governor was focused on supporting the needs and recovery of Floridians from Hurricane Ian. Regardless, we have already produced a significant number of documents and, as we have already stated, continue to endeavor to do so in a timely manner.
If even a fraction of the amount of effort spent by the media and critics to find something to take issue with regarding our relocation program was directed towards securing our southern border, we might actually be able to get the Biden Administration to do something about it."
WPTV's parent company, E.W. Scripps, has played a rolein the efforts to access these records, including contracts and emails linked to the flights.
Last month, Florida spent more than $1.5 million to fly almost 50 Venezuelan migrants to Massachusetts.
WPTV found that $12 million was earned in interest from federal coronavirus dollars that came to Florida. The money was allocated to "facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state."
State documents show that Florida officials began planning to transport migrants to other states in July and told potential contractors their task would be to relocate them on a voluntary basis, the Associated Press reported.
DeSantis said the flight to Martha's Vineyard was performed because he wanted to shine a light on the immigration crisis.
An additional lawsuit was also filed on behalf of some of the migrants, who said they were lied to.
