There’s New Evidence Against Ron DeSantis in Abortion Censorship Case

On Oct. 3, TV stations across Florida received letters from the state’s Department of Health threatening prosecution if they continued airing an When their lawyers arrived at a Tallahassee courthouse for a hearing last Thursday, they were approached by Wilson’s personal attorney. Wilson’s declaration points the finger at three specific officials: Ryan Newman, general counsel for the executive office of the governor; Jed Doty, deputy general counsel for the executive office of the governor; and Sam Elliott, assistant general counsel for the executive office of the governor. Newman and Doty then “directed” him to sign them, “under my name and on behalf of the Florida Department of Health.” A week later, Wilson resigned “in lieu of complying with directives from Newman and Doty to send out further correspondence to the media outlets.” Before he did, though, Newman “directed” Wilson “to execute contracts for outside counsel” to help “with enforcement proceedings” against outlets that continued to carry the ads. FPF had sued Wilson in his individual capacity, seeking monetary compensation, including punitive damages, to make up for the violation of rights and “deter repetition.” By dismissing him from the suit, the group essentially acknowledged that Wilson was not the driving force behind this deprivation of constitutional liberties. “What we’ve seen in the past is that when something appears to work in one state where conservatives control the government, which is the case in Florida, we see those actions spread,” she said.