CREW has launched an investigation into Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s public promotion of a COVID-19 treatment backed by one of his biggest political donors. We filed an Open Records Request from the Executive Office of the Governor for records pertaining to Citadel CEO and top DeSantis donor Ken Griffin and Regeneron CEO Dr. Leonard Schleifer, head of the company Griffin invested $15.9 million in.

DeSantis has routinely spoken highly of Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment at press conferences and has established treatment facilities all over the state. Given that Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to DeSantis’s political committee since 2018, CREW requested access to all records regarding them and their communications to ensure there’s no conflict of interest between DeSantis and Regeneron. 

Politicizing or profiting from a crisis is abhorrent, yet unfortunately something we’ve seen quite a bit of during the pandemic. Given DeSantis’s position, he has both a legal and ethical obligation to distance himself completely from potential conflicting situations. It appears he not only chose not to do so, but happily involved himself in the proceedings despite the potential conflict of interest.

Open records request

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