DCF sends cease and desist to reporter working on Hope Florida story

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has sent a cease and desist letter to an Orlando Sentinel reporter who has been digging into the Hope Florida scandal.

Jeffrey Schweers, the Sentinel’s Tallahassee bureau reporter, has broken some scoops regarding the embattled charity backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis.

Schweers recently wrote about a woman who made a social media post complimenting Hope Florida, who had actually been paid $588 by the organization a few days earlier. Another story covered a woman who had been promoted in Hope Florida’s marketing, who was still living in poverty despite receiving assistance from the charity three years prior.

Now, as Schweers is apparently working on his next piece, the DCF is accusing the reporter of “threats and coercion.”

“We have heard that @jeffschweers with the @orlandosentinel is calling foster families in Florida and threatening or coercing them to say things about Hope Florida. This is unacceptable,” the agency said in a post that received 150,000 views in 90 minutes.

“The Hope Florida Foundation supported foster families with donations from non-taxpayer funded sources that allowed these families to repair and restore their homes following the hurricanes last year.”

Roger Simmons, the paper’s Executive Editor, fired back in a statement.

“We stand by our stories and reject the state’s attempt to chill free speech and encroach on our First Amendment right to report on an important issue. The state’s characterization of our reporter’s conduct is completely false.”

The cease and desist letter said Schweers was working on a story about foster families and “asserting that the families are implicated in fraudulent activity by accepting financial assistance from Hope Florida Foundation Inc., a charitable Director Support Organization affiliated with this department.”

It did not, however, cite any specific examples of Schweers doing anything beyond reporting on a potential story.

“Bottom feeders gonna bottom feed,” DeSantis chimed in on X.

“Why not respond to my numerous public records requests?” Schweers wrote back.

Hope Florida has been under fire this year following the revelation that the state gave $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the charity. Some of the money was funneled to help DeSantis fight last year’s ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

Leon County prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into Hope Florida, according to media reports.

It’s not the first time the state has sent cease and desist letters to the media.

Under orders from DeSantis’ attorneys, the Department of Health sent cease and desist letters to TV stations playing pro-abortion rights ads during last year’s failed Amendment 4 campaign.