Florida House serves subpoena on Twitter

Testimony, records sought from CEO of nonprofit group

Tiffany Carr, you are hereby tweeted.

Both Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida House of Representatives have launched investigations into Carr and the non- profit she ran, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The organization took in millions of taxpayer dollars over the years as the association governing 42 Florida domestic violence centers. But in the last three years alone, Carr received $7.5 million in compensation, including a salary of $750,000 a year and separate compensation for up to 210 days a year of paid time off.

The eye-popping compensation was first publicly revealed in an investigation by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times. Since then, the same lawmakers that have regularly filled the coffers of the nonprofit with state money have been rushing to claw it back and investigate the organization.

The Florida House voted on Feb. 13 to subpoena both Carr and the board of directors of the nonprofit. But when it came time to serve the subpoena, Carr proved elusive.

“As to the measures that we’re taking, they’re extraordinary, I would say, but these are extraordinary circumstances,” House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, told reporters after the vote.

With Carr in the wind, those measures became even more extraordinary Thursday as Oliva announced he was serving Carr with a subpoena by directing a message toward her on Twitter.

“Tiffany Carr, former

CEO of @FCADV1, you are hereby served with the following House subpoena for testimony and documents. bit.ly/2TomhKT #Tiffany Carr #CousinsCoastal Realty,” Oliva tweeted.

Cousins Coastal Properties is a real estate business that Carr operates with her cousin. Carr has purchased homes in several states over the past few years, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Can you really serve someone subpoena papers by tweet? That question appeared to be answered by Oliva’s House spokesperson, Fred Piccolo, who replied to Oliva’s tweet just two minutes later: “Can you serve someone via Twitter? Yes you can abovethelaw .com/2018/08/can-yo... #TiffanyCarr”

The link goes to Above The Law, a blog operated by lawyer and editor Joe Patrice, and specifically to a 2018 article by Patrice in which he points out that the Democratic National Committee, with a court’s permission, served a subpoena to WikiLeaks during the investigation into how stolen DNC emails wound up with the website.

WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange, was unavailable to be served at the time, having gone into hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Oliva’s subpoena commands Carr to appear before the House’s Public Integrity and Ethics Committee at 9 a.m. on March 12.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, Carr has not replied to the tweet.

Carr