Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is being sued in federal court by a progressive state attorney whom he indefinitely suspended earlier this month and accused of being bankrolled by billionaire George Soros.
Andrew Warren, who was elected to serve as the state attorney for Hillsborough County, said he filed the lawsuit on Wednesday morning during a press conference announcing the move.
‘Without warning, I was forced out of my office by an armed deputy, removed from my elected position, and replaced with a Ron DeSantis accomplice,’ he claimed.
He accused DeSantis of violating his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and running afoul of the Florida state constitution in what Warren called a ‘blatant abuse of power.’
‘There’s so much more at stake here than my job. Ron DeSantis is hoping to get away with overturning a fair election, throwing out the votes of hundreds of thousands of Floridians,’ Warren said.
‘By challenging this illegal abuse of power, we can make sure that no governor can toss out the results of an election because he doesn’t like the outcome.’
DeSantis’ office told DailyMail.com, ‘It’s not surprising Warren, who was suspended for refusing to follow the law, would file a legally baseless lawsuit challenging his suspension.’
‘We look forward to responding in court,’ said the governor’s spokesperson Taryn Fenske.
Hillsborough County state attorney Andrew Warren is suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his executive order suspending the progressive elected official earlier this month
The popular Republican governor announced his executive order on Warren’s suspension publicly on August 4 during a press conference on the attorney’s own home turf in Tampa.
Standing amongst Hillsborough County law enforcement officers who claimed Warren was soft on crime, DeSantis said the prosecutor was ‘ignoring the law’ for refusing to enforce new policies on abortion and gender-affirming surgery.
The governor rationalized Warren’s suspension by claiming he was stamping out a ‘pathogen’ of activist prosecutors that he blamed for rising crime rates in multiple Democrat-run cities.
‘We’ve seen across this country, over the last few years, individual prosecutors take it upon themselves to determine which laws they like and will enforce and which laws they don’t like,’ DeSantis said. ‘We are not going to allow this pathogen that’s been around the country of ignoring the law, we are not going to let that get a foothold here in the state of Florida.’
But Warren is insisting in his lawsuit that DeSantis is suspending him because of their difference in beliefs.
‘The governor’s authority is not unlimited. He can disagree with my political views. He can disagree with my criminal justice philosophy. He can even disagree with my unwavering commitment to public safety, fairness and justice,’ he said.
‘And he can do all those things because he’s protected by the First Amendment.’
He added, ‘But the First Amendment doesn’t just protect him. It protects everyone. Even those of us he disagrees with.’
Warren claimed DeSantis ‘took control of the office people elected me to serve’ by having ‘showed up with an armed deputy’ at his door.
During his August 4 press conference on Warren’s home turf, DeSantis said he was suspending the prosecutor for his refusal to follow the governor’s new policies
He was allegedly prevented from preserving files and emails on his computer that he thought could be tampered with.
Earlier this month DeSantis said of Warren, ‘In June of 2021, he signed a letter saying that he would not enforce any prohibitions on sex change operations for minors.’
Going on to accuse Warren of being funded by billionaire George Soros, the governor also said that after the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights, the attorney ‘signed a letter saying he would not enforce any laws relating to protecting the right to life in the state of Florida.’
Warren told the Tampa Bay Times in 2020 that he believes Soros did donate money to his campaign.
Other questions about his funds have been raised since the ouster, such as a new report in the Florida Standard accusing Warren of using taxpayer money to help bankroll his progressive activism.
The report claims Warren used taxpayer dollars to travel across the country from 2017 through 2022 on trips linked to progressive group Fair and Just Prosecutions.
Warren was asked about the report on Wednesday by a reporter from right-wing outlet One America News.
He answered, ‘if your question isn’t about the lawsuit I’m not taking the question.’