A Republican official in Florida resigned on Tuesday in protest of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the police raid on whistleblower Rebekah Jones, a Florida data researcher who implicated the state of controling coronavirus data.
Ron Filipkowski, a long-lasting Republican designated by DeSantis to the 12 th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission, which selects judges, resigned from the panel on Tuesday after examining the search warrant used to take electronic devices from Jones.
Filipkowski, a former state and federal prosecutor, said in his resignation letter that he was “significantly alarmed” by DeSantis’ “negligent and reckless” pandemic reaction however the raid on Jones was “unconscionable.”
Filipowski, a Marine veteran, stated that even if Jones was behind the message he would “still call her a hero.” He included that he discovered the guv’s office claim that DeSantis was uninformed of the raid “not reliable.”
Jones said on Monday that cops pointed weapons at her and her household, which the Florida Department of Law Enforcement denied, and took her computers and hardware that she used to maintain her own coronavirus information dashboard. The FDLE stated they traced the source of the message to Jones’ house.
Jones rejected that she lagged the message and accused DeSantis of trying to “frighten researchers” into silence. DeSantis’ workplace said he only discovered of the raid after it took place.
The message, which was sent to 1,750 recipients who are mostly very first responders, urged people to “speak out prior to another 17,000 people are dead.”
” You know this is incorrect.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported that the search warrant used to seize Jones’ electronic devices was signed by Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes, who was designated by DeSantis in September.
” The judge who signed the search order of my home was selected by Governor Desantis and sworn in less than a month prior to he signed that warrant.
Jones said that the seized electronic devices consisted of “proof of corruption.”
” This was DeSantis.
Filipowski, who was two times designated to the panel by previous Gov. Rick Scott and once by DeSantis before going on an anti-Trump bend and working with The Lincoln Job in assistance of Joe Biden, informed CNN that he enjoyed the video of the raid and “couldn’t think what I was seeing.”
” Then I read the search warrant, and I’m a criminal lawyer, and I could not think what I was reading in the search warrant about how broad it was, about what they were declaring as an expected criminal activity,” he said. “I was just really annoyed by the whole circumstance. And after that the final straw was hearing Gov. DeSantis’ spokesman … state he didn’t know anything about the raid … Which I discovered to be fantastical. Simply not credible.”
Filipowski stated there was “no other way” a “small” police like the Florida Department of Police, which reports directly to DeSantis, went ahead with the raid without clearance.
The long-lasting Republican told the Tampa Bay Times that he felt DeSantis was abusing his power to retaliate against a whistleblower who has been a “thorn in his side” for months.
” You’re utilizing law enforcement in challenging individuals who are attempting to inform the reality and now we are crossing over to my whole life as a district attorney, employer, crusader,” he said.
He included that he hoped his resignation “in my own little way might draw some more attention to it” and “to the predicament of the people of Florida who I feel are not being told the truth about COVID.”
Democrats in Florida have actually likewise spoken up against the raid and called for an examination.
” We got a situation where they show up at a home and draw guns for an information break.
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