Ron DeSantis
Governor of Florida since 2019, formerly a congressman, who in August 2019 reassigned the state's Jeffrey Epstein matter and ordered a state police inquiry that in 2021 found differential treatment but no crime.
Ronald Dion DeSantis (born September 14, 1978) is the Governor of Florida, in office since January 8, 2019. A Republican, he represented Florida's sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 until his resignation on September 10, 2018. On August 6, 2019, a month after Jeffrey Epstein's arrest in New York, he reassigned the state's Epstein matter from the Palm Beach County State Attorney to the State Attorney of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to take over the sheriff's criminal investigation and to inquire into "other irregularities" in the 2008 state plea.12
The August 2019 Directive
The directive followed a letter to the governor from Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, whose office had opened an internal review of the deputies who guarded Epstein on work release. DeSantis issued an executive assignment moving the case to Bruce Colton, State Attorney for the Nineteenth Circuit, and wrote to FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen. His statement said: "Floridians expect and deserve a full and fair investigation. Following my review of Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw's letter, I am requesting the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to take over his criminal investigation pertaining to the Jeffrey Epstein matter. In addition, FDLE will conduct a preliminary inquiry into matters beyond the work release and into other irregularities concerning the case's disposition. I have also re-assigned the case to the State Attorney for the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit."23
A news-monitoring alert from the service Dataminr, forwarded within the Federal Bureau of Investigation the same day, read: "Florida Governor DeSantis orders state criminal probe into Palm Beach Sheriff and former State Attorney's handling of Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case," citing a post by the Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown.4
The federal Office of Professional Responsibility, which had no jurisdiction over state officials, recorded that the state inquiry "focuses on Epstein's state plea agreement and the Palm Beach County work release program," and because it was pending the former State Attorney Barry Krischer declined to explain his office's decisions to the federal investigators.5
The 2021 Findings
The department's Office of Executive Investigations released summaries of its preliminary inquiries on May 10, 2021. It found no evidence that Krischer or Assistant State Attorney Lanna Belohlavek "committed any crimes, accepted any bribes or gifts, or did anything improper in their handling of the case." On the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office it reported that "Epstein was provided differential treatment," but that the actions "were explained by PBSO and . . . were determined not to be a criminal matter." Work release had allowed Epstein out "for up to twelve hours a day, six days a week." No charges followed.67
Relationships 2
- Bruce Colton2
Sources
- unitedstates/congress-legislators project, legislators-historical.json (birth date and House terms, compiled from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress), accessed September 25, 2026. https://unitedstates.github.io/congress-legislators/legislators-historical.json ↩
- Executive Office of the Governor of Florida, "Governor Ron DeSantis Requests FDLE Take Over the Criminal Investigation of the Jeffrey Epstein Matter and Re-assigns the Case to the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida," press release, August 6, 2019. https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2019/governor-ron-desantis-requests-fdle-take-over-criminal-investigation-jeffrey ↩
- Curt Anderson, "Florida sheriff investigates Epstein's time spent outside of jail," Associated Press via PBS NewsHour, July 19, 2019. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/florida-sheriff-investigates-epsteins-time-spent-outside-of-jail ↩
- U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01659233, DataSet 10, Dataminr "First Alert" email, August 6, 2019. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01659233.pdf ↩
- U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02847284, Prior DOJ Disclosures, report, Office of Professional Responsibility, November 2020. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Prior%20DOJ%20Disclosures/Memos.%20&%20Correspondence/EFTA02847284.pdf ↩
- Sabrina Lolo, "FDLE clears PBSO, prosecutors in connection to Epstein's work release privileges," CBS12, May 10, 2021. https://cbs12.com/news/local/fdle-clears-pbso-prosecutors-in-connection-to-epsteins-work-release-privileges ↩
- Erik Altmann and Todd Wilson, "FDLE investigation finds no wrongdoing by PBSO, State Attorney's Office in Jeffrey Epstein plea deal," WPTV, May 2021. https://www.wptv.com/news/epstein/fdle-investigation-finds-no-wrongdoing-by-pbso-state-attorneys-office-in-jeffrey-epstein-plea-deal ↩
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