A Lee County circuit judge ruled on Tuesday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is required to hand over flight records of migrants who were flown from Texas to Martha's Vineyard.
Judge J. Lee Marsh, gave the Republican's administration 20 days to provide the records that are being sought by the Florida Center for Government Accountability. He pointed that, at least in part, to requested phone or text logs that could provide useful information about communications by DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier about the flights.
Ordered To Release Flight Records
Marsh noted that the governor's office did not show "any steps, direct steps taken to gather what this court finds are public records" that are related to state business conducted on personal devices.
The director of public access for the center, Michael Barfield, said that Judge Marsh's verbal ruling held the governor accountable for delays in providing public records. He said that the public's right to access was vindicated and noted that DeSantis was not immune from being held accountable, as per CBS News.
Prior to the judge's ruling, Andrew King, an attorney for the Florida governor, argued that DeSantis' administration was working to fulfill numerous records requests that stemmed from the migrant flights. He also accused the center of "weaponizing" the public-records law to get ahead of other people or organizations who are seeking records.
King said that they were diligently working to provide all of the Martha's Vineyard flight records to all of the individuals and parties who requested them. However, Judge Marsh pushed back against the attorney's weaponizing argument, saying that they were simply using the statute that the Legislature passed.
According to Politico, the ruling comes after DeSantis said that he launched the migrant relocation program, which was being paid for by interest earned off billions in COVID-19 relief aid that Congress provided to Florida, as part of his attempts to draw attention to the immigration policies of US President Joe Biden.
Migrant Flights to Martha's Vineyard
However, the flights were quickly criticized by Democrats, who called the effort a "political stunt" and akin to human trafficking. The Treasury Department's watchdog is now looking into whether or not DeSantis improperly used funds related to COVID-19 relief dollars to support the flights.
Amid the tense situation, numerous news organizations and other groups filed record requests in late September seeking information on how the flights were coordinated and whether or not the process involved top officials with the DeSantis administration.
The lawsuit filed last month argued that the failure to hand over records was an "unjustified delay." The DeSantis administration has since turned over some records, which include redacted copies of waivers that the migrants signed as well as information that showed the involvement of top DeSantis aides.
Part of the issue surrounding DeSantis' migrant flights is his administration using Florida money to finance the two flights made on September 14. They started in San Antonio, stopped at an airport in the Northwest Florida community of Crestview, and finally landed in Martha's Vineyard, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
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