A proposal that would allow Florida officials to provide up to $5 million in public funds to former President Donald Trump to help finance his legal bills has been sidelined in the current legislative session.
Senate Bill 1740, authored by state Sen. Ileana Garcia (R-Miami) and supported by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, was withdrawn from consideration by lawmakers on Jan. 25. The measure would have created the Defending Freedom Fighters Trust Fund to pay presidential candidates up to $5 million for legal fees “incurred as a result of criminal charges brought by a U.S. public entity,” according to the text of the bill.
Patronis still wants to address issues raised by the bill in the next legislative session, Patronis’ communications director told the Florida Record in an email.
“The CFO believes that there is an ongoing effort to weaponize the federal government against the Free State of Florida – and that shouldn’t be allowed,” Devin Galetta said. “The CFO is open to creating penalties for these actions – there should be a downside for going after good people.”
Patronis advocates that the state should take some action to fight back against “bad federal prosecutors,” but the time for such a bill is not right in 2024, according to Galetta.
Prior to SB 1740 being withdrawn from consideration, Gov. Ron DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter, that he did not support the measure and implied he would veto it if passed.
“The original Freedom Fighters Fund proposed using dollars from the state’s Public Campaign Finance program, which is an existing program that’s funded with fees candidates pay for qualifying,” Galetta said. “These public dollars are already used for campaign purposes in Florida elections.”
Back in December, Patronis said in a media interview that he became upset after seeing Trump, who according to the Forbes website is worth $2.6 billion, on the witness stand in one of the civil cases he is fighting.
“Here's a sitting former president of the United States, who's been hauled into court,” the CFO said. “All the debts are paid. There were no defaults, and it's a political prosecution. So I told my guys, we've got to find a way to protect Florida Man.”
The state is already using candidate-fee funds for some public financing of elections, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services.
“The Democrats are using dollars, tax dollars, for political purposes with their prosecutions,” Patronis said in December. “Why shouldn't we defend a Floridian who is running for federal office, be it president or vice president? So again, the Legislature will have the final say on this, but we've got to defend those that we feel can turn this country back around.”
The bill would have allowed grants to be given to candidates who meet presidential eligibility requirements spelled out in the U.S. Constitution. If approved, the measure would have allowed eligible candidates to use such grants for legal fees incurred in criminal prosecutions, according to the text of the bill.
“The (Department of Financial Services) has the sole authority to determine if a person has been subject to political discrimination,” the bill states.