State police officials say Florida governor’s staff targeted them over flight records

TALLAHASSEE

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ top aides stopped the release of public records about his taxpayer-funded plane travel and retaliated against state police employees who disagreed with the decision, according to two former officials in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

In a sworn statement entered in court last week, former department Chief of Staff Shane Desguin alleges DeSantis officials stopped the release of about 600 records that would have revealed who traveled with the governor on the state plane and where it went.

The department denied the release citing a new state law shielding the governor’s travel records, according to court records.

But Desguin, who was involved in crafting the legislation, said the governor’s office misinterpreted the law, which was intended to shield records that jeopardized the safety of the governor or his family.

Officials at the Department of Law Enforcement — the agency responsible for protecting the governor — said the records posed no risk to him, his family or anyone else, according to Desguin.

When he and other officials pushed back on the decision, one was denied a promotion, another was placed on leave and Desguin was forced to resign, he and his former deputy chief of staff alleged.

The statements were first reported by The Washington Post, which is suing in Leon County court to obtain the travel records. The statements were included in a filing by the Post last week.

Florida has a broad public records law that allows news outlets and the public to request information on state and local governments. The law is broader than what exists in many other states.

But since DeSantis took office in 2019, journalists and open government advocates have found that routine requests for public records take months or years to fulfill. Click Orlando reported last year that DeSantis’ office is requiring state agencies to send public records to the governor’s office for “review” before sending them to news outlets, a move that bogs down the process. The Times/ Herald has had to involve the companies’ lawyers to get state agencies to respond to some requests for public records.

When The Washington Post requested records about DeSantis’ use of the state plane, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement initially told the paper the records would be released, according to Desguin. (Past administrations have released records on the use of state planes.)

Desguin said in his statement that the records “would allow the

public to understand how their tax dollars are used,” Desguin wrote.

But DeSantis’ staff disagreed. In October, the administration sent two staffers to meet with the department’s assistant general counsel, Janine Robinson, Desguin wrote. Robinson handled public records and was in line for a promotion to supervise a new unit that would speed up records requests.

The governor’s staffers told Robinson and Desguin that the governor’s travel records were not to be released, Desguin said.

Within a couple of days, Desguin said he got a call from Anastasios Kamoutsas, a deputy chief of staff in the governor’s office. Kamoutsas told Desguin to tell the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Mark Glass, to deny Robinson the promotion.

When Desguin asked why, he said Kamoutsas responded, “She’s not on our team.”

“I recall that Mr. Kamoutsas said, in essence: ‘She is lucky she’s got a f--king job,’” Desguin recalled in his statement.

On Nov. 9, nearly a month later, the department’s deputy chief of staff, Patricia Carpenter, moved to promote Robinson, but with a salary below $90,000, a threshold that would have triggered approval from the governor’s office, Desguin wrote.

Shortly afterward, Desguin said that DeSantis’ acting chief of staff, Alex Kelly, called him.

“Mr. Kelly berated me for not following (the governor’s office’s) ‘directive’ to deny Ms. Robinson’s promotion, and ordered me to ‘fix it,’” Desguin wrote.

Robinson’s promotion was denied. Later that day, Desguin, a nearly 20-year employee with the department, said he was told to report to the commissioner’s office, where he was asked to resign.

Carpenter was placed on leave that day, she wrote in her own sworn statement. Later that month, she said she wrote an email to Glass documenting what happened and seeking protection as a whistleblower.

She was fired three days later, her statement says.

The governor’s office referred comment to its court filings. The office is trying to dismiss the case.

The episode indicates an unusual level of involvement by the governor in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is supposed to have some level of independence despite carrying out some of the governor’s top priorities, such as the elections police force and his immigration crackdown.

The department does not report directly to the governor. Rather, it reports to the governor and Cabinet — the state’s attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner.

“I cannot recall a time in my nearly 20 years of experience at FDLE when the Governor’s Office had so intimately involved itself in a personnel decision,” Desguin wrote. “Over the past few years it appeared to me that FDLE was being treated more like a Governor’s agency, than a Cabinet agency.”