Latest news with #HopeFlorida
Fox News
13 hours ago
- Business
- Fox News
DeSantis punches back at Hope Florida controversy, likens 'lawfare' to attacks on Trump and nominees
The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis punched back at allegations linking the governor and his wife, Casey DeSantis, to $10 million given to the Hope Florida Foundation after the state settled with a government-sponsored healthcare provider. "Governor DeSantis and Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis have been subject to politically motivated lawfare in the state of Florida, and now the same lawfare is being perpetrated against President Trump and his nominees," Communications Director Bryan Griffin told Fox News Digital. "It's ridiculous and especially shameful coming from Republicans who hate to see others delivering results." Centene, a large medical insurance provider that specializes in government-sponsored programs like Medicaid and Medicare, returned $67 million in a settlement with the state's Agency for Health Care Administration over claims that Centene was overbilling Medicaid payments. Following the settlement in September 2024, $10 million of the funds were sent to the Hope Florida Foundation. The $10 million given to the Hope Florida Foundation was then split into two separate $5 million grants to 501(c)(4) organizations. One went to Save Our Society from Drugs and the other to Secure Florida's Future, Inc. Subsequently, $8.5 million of those funds were dispersed to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee that previously targeted Florida Amendment 3, a constitutional amendment to recreationally legalize marijuana. Casey DeSantis has been outspoken against the legalization of marijuana. A senior official from DeSantis's office told Fox News Digital that the Hope Florida Foundation is a separate entity from the Hope Florida initiative that has been spearheaded by Casey DeSantis. A senior official from DeSantis' office also told Fox News Digital that there is no official investigation being conducted by the Leon County State Attorney's office, despite reports that a record custodian in the state attorney's office referred to the matter as "an open, ongoing investigation." In a May 21 email exchange obtained by Fox News Digital, the New York Times corrected a headline stating that "Casey DeSantis [Is] Under Investigation" after a DeSantis official clarified to the publication that there is no official investigation taking place. Florida state Republican Rep. Alex Andrade, chairman of the healthcare appropriations subcommittee, originally unearthed the funds. Andrade told Fox he was unaware if there was an actual ongoing investigation, but added that he had a "long conversation with the [Department of Justice]" about documents and communications related to the movement of funds. He noted he does nOt "see how Casey or [Ron] DeSantis are involved." Andrade went on to explain that he believes DeSantis's chief of staff at the time was involved in brokering the grants between the Hope Florida Foundation and the two entities which received $5 million each. He also slammed the Hope Florida initiative itself, saying "they can't back up any of the claims about what state employees are doing." "The concept of Hope Florida is telling existing employees to do a better job of helping people," Andrede added. "That's it." DeSantis previously addressed Andrade's claims at a May 21 press conference in Westin, Florida. "You had one state representative with a political agenda, and he has a political agenda to try to smear Hope Florida—to try to smear people associated with the administration," DeSantis explained. "My wife, who's done a great job for this state by the way, not just on Hope Florida, saving taxpayers $100 million, getting 30,000 people off means-tested welfare. Show me someone else in this country that has been able to do that?" The Hope Florida Foundation controversy has shaken up political implications for the upcoming governor's race. Gov. DeSantis is termed out, but his wife, Casey, is widely rumored to enter the field. Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida is the only GOP candidate declared so far, and he received an endorsement from President Donald Trump shortly after his announcement. Fox News Digital reached out to the Leon County State Attorney's office but did not receive a response in time for publication. Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to and on X @MizellPreston
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Florida AG James Uthmeier denies involvement in Hope Florida transfers to committee he ran
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier denied being involved with the Hope Florida money transfers that are reportedly under investigation and blamed the scandal on interest in the marijuana industry. 'I don't control the decisions of other nonprofits,' Uthmeier said. 'I was on the board of the nonprofit that was focused on exclusively defeating Amendment 3, unrestricted marijuana.' Uthmeier made the comments during a press conference in Pensacola, where he announced the signing of an agreement with the Florida Department of Education to cooperate with the newly created Office of Parental Rights in the AG's office. 'I'll mention the Hope Florida thing," Uthmeier said. 'It's clear there's some political attacks going on.' Uthmeier said he believes the accusations about Hope Florida are being pushed by the marijuana industry. 'I know the big marijuana industry, they put in over $150 million (in the Amendment 3 campaign), they're not very happy about this,' Uthmeier said. 'I know there's some Democrat officials and a legislator in this area that are in bed with that group, and so they want to bring this fight. But at the end of the day, we did the right thing. Everything we did was lawful. We won. I'm proud we won, and I'm glad that we have kept Florida safe, free and open for business in a healthy manner.' Hope Florida is a state program whose stated goal is to help steer Floridians away from state assistance and toward services offered by nonprofits and faith-based organizations. Hope Florida has a foundation to raise private money to support the program. The program was championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis, and news of the scandal broke as speculation in the political press mounted about the first lady making a bid for governor in 2026 to succeed her husband. Earlier this year, the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald reported that a $10 million donation to Hope Florida came out of a $67 million lawsuit settlement with Florida's largest Medicaid contractor, Centene. According to the report, Centene overbilled taxpayers by $67 million, and the DeSantis administration settled the lawsuit with the company for the same amount. Rather than all $67 million going back to the Medicaid program, $10 million was sent to Hope Florida. Hope Florida then passed on the $10 million to political committees, and the money ultimately went to support the campaign against the amendment that would've legalized recreational marijuana in Florida. Pensacola Rep. Alex Andrade, chairman of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee, held hearings to investigate the issue and said he found evidence that Uthmeier directed the money to Hope Florida when he was DeSantis's chief of staff. Andrade said he believes the $10 million transfer was illegal and turned over all of his documents his committee obtained to state and federal prosecutors. On May 20, Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald reported that the Leon County state attorney's office couldn't provide the documents because they were part of an open investigation. Andrade's investigation of the transfers has made him a persona non grata in the DeSantis administration. He told the News Journal that state officials have stopped responding to requests from him for other legislative work and on May 21 DeSantis blasted Andrade during a May 21 press conference in response to a question about a reported criminal investigation into the Hope Florida. 'You had a one state representative with a political agenda, and he has a political agenda to try to smear Hope Florida—to try to smear people associated with the administration,' DeSantis said. 'Even my wife, who's done a great job for this state by the way, not just on Hope Florida, saving taxpayers $100 million, getting 30,000 people off means-tested welfare. Show me someone else in this country that has been able to do that?" DeSantis said his wife worked to start Hope Florida and other initiatives while she was first lady and has never been paid for any of that work. He said a person who was clearly Andrade was trying to smear his administration. He never mentioned Andrade's name, but he did use other terms. 'She has led an initiative to help people, and you have one jackass in the legislature—I'm sorry, it's true—who's trying to smear her, smear good people,' DeSantis said. DeSantis repeated the claim that the scandal surrounding Hope Florida is a 'manufactured political operation.' 'How pathetic is it that we have a Republican representative who's engaging in lawfare to try to advance a political agenda?' DeSantis said. 'It stinks, and everybody knows it.' Andrade said Uthmeier's comments in Pensacola on May 23 were 'more deflection from the chief laundering officer of the State of Florida.' 'Why didn't he just answer the question?' Andrade said. 'Unless I'm missing something, his comment amounts to bragging that he used Medicaid funds to fight a ballot initiative.' After DeSantis made his comments on May 21, Andrade responded with a post on X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter. 'I want to publicly apologize to @GovRonDeSantis for hurting his feelings by… (checking notes) handing over evidence of criminal activity to law enforcement… My heart bleeds for you Governor…' Andrade wrote. Andrade brushed off the personal attacks by DeSantis when asked by the News Journal. 'I think it's inappropriate of him to be complaining about a criminal investigation,' Andrade said. 'I discovered evidence of money laundering and wire fraud, turned it over to law enforcement. And he's, like, mad that I care about protecting taxpayer money?' Andrade said he doesn't think most people in Pensacola are paying attention to DeSantis' press conferences, but the constituents he has heard from about it have given him positive feedback. 'The only thing I've gotten from constituents is encouragement to get to the bottom of what happened with the funds,' Andrade said. 'As far as like, DeSantis kind of going off the rails, most folks aren't really paying attention.' Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the Hope Florida investigation, Andrade said he plans to bring legislation next year that will make it an outright crime to steer money in a state settlement away from state coffers like what happened with Hope Florida. He also wants to look at restricting what type of political activity staff members of the governor's office can engage in similar to restrictions on staff at the federal level. "This wouldn't have happened if DeSantis hadn't had his chief of staff running his presidential campaign, and then running these campaigns against amendments out of the governor's office," Andrade said. "They conflated personal, political and public service, non-stop." This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida AG James Uthmeier denies involvement in Hope Florida scandal
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
He lost his Senate seat to a conspiracy. Now he wants to be Florida's top prosecutor
Promising to go after 'corrupt power brokers in Tallahassee,' José Javier Rodríguez, the Miami Democrat who lost his Florida Senate seat to a criminal election conspiracy, is launching a campaign to become Florida attorney general. The Harvard-educated attorney and former Biden administration official told the Herald/Times that he is running to challenge operatives and corporations that he believes have run amok in the Republican-controlled Capitol, including property insurers and utilities. 'The Office of Attorney General is supposed to be the people's lawyer,' he said in an interview Friday. 'To stand up to the corrupt and powerful when you need to, but always serving the best interest of the people of Florida.' The job of attorney general 'is not to be the governor's lawyer, and it is not to be a mouthpiece for the corrupt and powerful,' he added. The campaign is Rodríguez's first since he lost his 2020 re-election campaign for the Florida Senate by 34 votes. The race was likely tilted by political operatives who recruited and promoted straw candidates to siphon votes away from Democrats. Five people tied to the scheme took plea deals or were convicted, including former Miami state Sen. Frank Artiles. Rodríguez said he doesn't consider himself the victim of the scheme. The voters in his former Miami-Dade district are the victims, he said. If elected, Rodríguez said his priorities would include investigating those who are trying to 'muddy up our elections.' 'We need an attorney general looking out for the best interests of the people, and when these election schemes pop up, absolutely they'll be subject of investigation,' he said. 'Anything that the Attorney General's Office would need to do under my leadership to protect voters, we would do.' Rodríguez, 46, is facing an uphill battle in a state where Democrats have had little to celebrate over the last two decades. If he overcomes the odds and is elected, he would replace Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was appointed in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis after serving as the governor's former chief of staff and top political adviser. In the short time Uthmeier has held his post, much of his attention has been on culture war-centered fights and amplifying the governor's messaging on immigration. A Miami federal judge may hold him in contempt of court for telling police he 'cannot prevent' them from enforcing a DeSantis immigration law that was blocked by a court order. The attorney general was also involved in a $67 million Medicaid settlement that steered $10 million to a charity created to support the first lady's Hope Florida program. Records related to a House Republican investigation of the settlement are now part of a criminal investigation opened by state prosecutors in Leon County. Uthmeier has called the House GOP investigation of Hope Florida a 'smear campaign.' DeSantis has said there is 'no basis' for the investigation. 'The current attorney general is probably the least independent Attorney General we have ever had,' said Rodríguez, who called Uthmeier 'corrupt.' Rodríguez, who served as assistant secretary of the Department of Labor under President Joe Biden, is also trying to get back into Florida politics because he says there are a lot of ways that consumers are not being protected. 'In my view, the battle is with the corrupt power brokers in Tallahassee who want to keep things as they are and keep increasing our costs and shifting things onto us,' he said. If elected, he said he will work to bring homeowners relief by suing bad actors in the property insurance industry. He also raised the possibility of suing utilities, such as Florida Power & Light, which he said is seeking a nearly $9 billion hike to customers' base rates over four years — an amount that advocates said represents the largest rate hike request in U.S. history. 'If I'm Attorney General, they [FPL] and any other powerful interest that throws their weight around Tallahassee, if they're violating the law, if they're exceeding what they should be doing and hurting people, they will be held to account,' he said. Rodríguez pointed to his track record as a state lawmaker to show he is willing to challenge powerful companies, like FPL. As a Democratic state senator, he proposed a law that would have cut into FPL's profits by allowing landlords to sell rooftop solar power to their tenants, a move that would have cut out FPL. Rodríguez's criticism of FPL infuriated the utility's former chairman and CEO, who was later accused in lawsuits of being involved in some of the transactions in the straw candidate scheme in the 2020 election. Rodriguez said FPL funded 'a corrupt scheme by Republicans.' The company has denied any involvement in the scandal. 'If you think anybody in Tallahassee is really going to hold them to account, I'll tell you that I wish that were the case,' Rodriguez said. 'But if history is the guide, they get what they want almost every time, and there's no one to stop them.' He wants voters to believe he can be the one that can reverse that trend. 'I'm not afraid to bring the fight, to continue bringing the fight, and I think I've got the track record to prove that,' he said.
Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
He lost his Senate seat to a conspiracy. Now he wants to be Florida's top prosecutor
Promising to go after 'corrupt power brokers in Tallahassee,' José Javier Rodríguez, the Miami Democrat who lost his Florida Senate seat to a criminal election conspiracy, is launching a campaign to become Florida attorney general. The Harvard-educated attorney and former Biden administration official told the Herald/Times that he is running to challenge operatives and corporations that he believes have run amok in the Republican-controlled Capitol, including property insurers and utilities. 'The Office of Attorney General is supposed to be the people's lawyer,' he said in an interview Friday. 'To stand up to the corrupt and powerful when you need to, but always serving the best interest of the people of Florida.' The job of attorney general 'is not to be the governor's lawyer, and it is not to be a mouthpiece for the corrupt and powerful,' he added. The campaign is Rodríguez's first since he lost his 2020 re-election campaign for the Florida Senate by 34 votes. The race was likely tilted by political operatives who recruited and promoted straw candidates to siphon votes away from Democrats. Five people tied to the scheme took plea deals or were convicted, including former Miami state Sen. Frank Artiles. Rodríguez said he doesn't consider himself the victim of the scheme. The voters in his former Miami-Dade district are the victims, he said. If elected, Rodríguez said his priorities would include investigating those who are trying to 'muddy up our elections.' 'We need an attorney general looking out for the best interests of the people, and when these election schemes pop up, absolutely they'll be subject of investigation,' he said. 'Anything that the Attorney General's Office would need to do under my leadership to protect voters, we would do.' Rodríguez criticizes Uthmeier Rodríguez, 46, is facing an uphill battle in a state where Democrats have had little to celebrate over the last two decades. If he overcomes the odds and is elected, he would replace Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was appointed in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis after serving as the governor's former chief of staff and top political adviser. In the short time Uthmeier has held his post, much of his attention has been on culture war-centered fights and amplifying the governor's messaging on immigration. A Miami federal judge may hold him in contempt of court for telling police he 'cannot prevent' them from enforcing a DeSantis immigration law that was blocked by a court order. The attorney general was also involved in a $67 million Medicaid settlement that steered $10 million to a charity created to support the first lady's Hope Florida program. Records related to a House Republican investigation of the settlement are now part of a criminal investigation opened by state prosecutors in Leon County. Uthmeier has called the House GOP investigation of Hope Florida a 'smear campaign.' DeSantis has said there is 'no basis' for the investigation. 'The current attorney general is probably the least independent Attorney General we have ever had,' said Rodríguez, who called Uthmeier 'corrupt.' Rodríguez, who served as assistant secretary of the Department of Labor under President Joe Biden, is also trying to get back into Florida politics because he says there are a lot of ways that consumers are not being protected. 'In my view, the battle is with the corrupt power brokers in Tallahassee who want to keep things as they are and keep increasing our costs and shifting things onto us,' he said. Rodríguez on FPL If elected, he said he will work to bring homeowners relief by suing bad actors in the property insurance industry. He also raised the possibility of suing utilities, such as Florida Power & Light, which he said is seeking a nearly $9 billion hike to customers' base rates over four years — an amount that advocates said represents the largest rate hike request in U.S. history. 'If I'm Attorney General, they [FPL] and any other powerful interest that throws their weight around Tallahassee, if they're violating the law, if they're exceeding what they should be doing and hurting people, they will be held to account,' he said. Rodríguez pointed to his track record as a state lawmaker to show he is willing to challenge powerful companies, like FPL. As a Democratic state senator, he proposed a law that would have cut into FPL's profits by allowing landlords to sell rooftop solar power to their tenants, a move that would have cut out FPL. Rodríguez's criticism of FPL infuriated the utility's former chairman and CEO, who was later accused in lawsuits of being involved in some of the transactions in the straw candidate scheme in the 2020 election. Rodriguez said FPL funded 'a corrupt scheme by Republicans.' The company has denied any involvement in the scandal. 'If you think anybody in Tallahassee is really going to hold them to account, I'll tell you that I wish that were the case,' Rodriguez said. 'But if history is the guide, they get what they want almost every time, and there's no one to stop them.' He wants voters to believe he can be the one that can reverse that trend. 'I'm not afraid to bring the fight, to continue bringing the fight, and I think I've got the track record to prove that,' he said.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Courting controversy: Florida's attorney general is no stranger to conflict
James Uthmeier is no shrinking violet. Florida's new attorney general — currently facing a potential contempt charge from a federal judge in Miami — is no stranger to lawsuits and investigations. Uthmeier, appointed this year as Florida's top prosecutor by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been at the center of some of the biggest political controversies to hit Florida in recent years. Prior to assuming office in February, Uthmeier, as one of DeSantis' top political and policy advisors, helped coordinate flights that carried migrants from the Southern border to liberal communities. He led campaigns to defeat marijuana and abortion access at the ballot. And he was involved in a Medicaid settlement that steered $10 million away from state coffers and into a charity created to support the first lady's Hope Florida program. The 37-year-old Republican, who notably managed DeSantis' presidential campaign last year, is leaning into the attention and notoriety as he campaigns to keep the job the governor just gave him. READ MORE: Miami judge delays whether to hold Florida attorney general in contempt of court Uthmeier kicked off his tenure as attorney general by announcing a criminal investigation into Andrew and Tristan Tate, controversial, far-right influencers who were charged with human trafficking in Romania in 2022. The investigation opened after the siblings landed in Florida this February. Uthmeier said on X that he had directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to execute search warrants and issue subpoenas to the Tate brothers. 'Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women. If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable,' Uthmeier wrote on X. Uthmeier has made efforts to combat LGBTQ activism and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, launching a lawsuit against Target and pressuring a private gym into reversing a policy that allowed transgender women in the women's locker rooms. Uthmeier cited HB 1521, which was signed by DeSantis in 2023 and makes it a crime in Florida to use a restroom that does not match a person's sex assigned at birth. Similarly, he launched the nation's first office of parental rights to 'provide justice to parents and families whose rights have been violated' by governments or institutions. 'This first-in-the-nation office is a mechanism for parents and families to seek justice where local governments and school systems seek to 'treat,' indoctrinate, or collect data from students without parental involvement,' Uthmeier said in a press release. 'This new initiative is another way we are making Florida the best place to raise a family.' Uthmeier was elevated to attorney general thanks to a political domino chain set off when President Donald Trump nominated U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to be his secretary of state. DeSantis replaced Rubio with then-Attorney General Ashley Moody. Then he appointed Uthmeier, at the time his chief of staff, to replace Moody and serve out the remainder of her term, which ends in January of 2027. Uthmeier has already announced plans to campaign to win a full term as attorney general in the November 2026 election. Just a few days after taking his oath of office and being sworn in, Uthmeier officially kicked off his 2026 campaign in March. He launched the Friends of James Uthmeier political committee. Since taking on his new role, Uthmeier has kept busy, cracking down on Snapchat predators, convicting undocumented immigrants and taking legal action against a variety of organizations. With immigration policies at the forefront of national controversy, Uthmeier has been a key player in Florida's enforcement of its immigration laws. Earlier in May Uthmeier made it clear he would 'not tell state law enforcement agencies to obey a federal court order halting immigration arrests under a new state law' despite the judge who issued the order threatening to hold him in contempt of court. He said he does not believe an attorney general should be held in contempt of court for what he says is 'respecting the rule of law,' the Miami Herald previously reported. In March, Uthmeier threatened to punish Fort Myers City Council members for rejecting a proposed immigration partnership with the federal government. The partnership program, known as 287(g), allows ICE 'to enhance collaboration with state and local law enforcement partners to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of aliens who undermine the safety of our nation's communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws,' according to ICE's website. Uthmeier told the City Council members that their decision to not enroll in the program 'constitutes a serious and direct violation' of a Florida law that bans sanctuary cities — localities that limit collaboration on immigration enforcement in a broad variety of ways, the Herald previously reported. And in 2022, Uthmeier found himself at the center of controversy while serving as the governor's chief of staff for his involvement in an operation to fly nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, an island in Massachusetts. The DeSantis administration tapped into $12 million that the Legislature provided to transport undocumented immigrants from Florida, the Herald previously reported. Several of the migrants had legal status in the U.S. as asylum seekers and said they were tricked into taking the charter flights with false promises of jobs and other aid. It was also found that Uthmeier had used his personal cellphone in planning the operation. Text messages released showed Uthmeier communicating with Larry Keefe, a former Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney now serving as Florida's public safety czar, who was in Texas coordinating the migrant flights. Over a week before the first flight, Keefe texted Uthmeier that he was 'back out here.' 'Very good,' Uthmeier texted. 'You have my full support. Call anytime.' The Bexar County Sheriff's Office in Texas launched a criminal investigation, ultimately turning its case over to local prosecutors, who have not publicly discussed their handling of the matter. No charges have been filed. Uthmeier's positions and actions on immigration enforcement have continued to put him in the spotlight. On Thursday afternoon, Uthmeier faced a contempt of court hearing in a politically fraught immigration case before a Miami federal judge who could fine him or send him to jail. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams filed a temporary restraining order in April to stop enforcement of Florida Senate Bill 4C, which became effective in February and makes it a crime for immigrants to enter Florida after illegally crossing into the United States. Williams previously found Uthmeier violated her temporary restraining order after learning Florida Highway Patrol officers had arrested more than a dozen people – including a U.S. citizen – for illegally entering the state under the new misdemeanor law. Uthmeier also issued a memo to law enforcement agencies arguing that Williams did not have the authority to block them from enforcing the law because they had not been named as parties to the lawsuit over which she is presiding. The judge put off a decision on whether to hold Uthmeier in contempt on Thursday, but grilled his attorneys over his position on her rulings. Uthmeier's fight with a federal judge is far from his only public feud. Uthmeier's involvement with a $67 million Medicaid settlement that steered $10 million to a charity created to support Hope Florida — a program by Florida's first lady to help get Floridians off of government aid — has drawn accusations of criminal activity. In April, Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican who launched an investigation into Hope Florida, said he believed Uthmeier had worked with the charity's lawyer, Jeff Aaron, to illegally siphon the millions away from state coffers and into his own political committee. The foundation split the $10 million between two other nonprofits. Those two groups then gave $8.5 million to the Keep Florida Clean political committee controlled by Uthmeier. The committee was created to defeat Amendment 3, the failed ballot initiative that tried to legalize recreational marijuana. Text messages obtained and released by Andrade show Uthmeier reached out to the leader of one of the groups that received a $5 million grant prior to her applying. In an interview released Wednesday, Uthmeier said the allegations surrounding the misuse of funds is all a 'smear campaign and totally false.' Without getting into specifics, he said that his efforts to campaign against the marijuana amendment were all above board and in keeping with laws regulating political committees and so-called 'social-welfare' 501(c)(4) non-profits, which can spend on political issues without disclosing their donors. 'There's nothing that stops outside entities from working with other C4s and non-profits to fight in an issue campaign,' Uthmeier said. 'The rules, you know, you can't use some of those funds for a candidate campaign. But we weren't out there promoting a candidate. We were fighting against a harmful ideology.' Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
