Tallahassee - Wednesday August 17, 2022: Suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren filed a federal lawsuit in Tallahassee this morning (Wednesday morning) seeking an order to compel Governor DeSantis to rescind the suspension and re-instate him to the office he was elected to.
“This morning I filed a suit in federal court to challenge the blatant abuse of power by Governor DeSantis in suspending me as state attorney.”
Warren has twice been elected State Attorney by the voters of Hillsborough County. The Governor suspend him saying Warren had put himself above the law because he recently joined other prosecutors from around the country in signing a letter pledging not to prosecute cases involving new abortion laws or cases involving trans-gender medical treatments.
DeSantis said he acted under his authority to suspend an elected official for neglecting their duty.
“The Governor has broken two laws here. He has violated the first amendment by retaliating against me for something that I said. And he’s violated the Florida constitution by abusing his power to overturn an election and remove an elected official from office without any real justification.”
Attorney Jean-Jacques Cabou will make Warren’s case to the Federal Court. Signing those letters with other prosecutors was an affirmation of Warren’s prosecutorial discretion, a right protected by the 1st Amendment said Cabou. And his client can’t be accused of neglecting his duty since there has been no documented failure to enforce any Florida laws.
“An elected official like Mr. DeSantis cannot use the powers of his office to retaliate against fellow elected officials, in this case a fellow constitutional officer, to serve his purposes," Cabou. "The 1st amendment is clear, the courts have been very clear, that the 1st amendment protects elected officials, just like it protects all of us.”
“At its heart this is about the first amendment," said Warren. "Ron DeSantis is hoping to get away with overturning a fair election, throwing out the votes of hundreds of thousands of Floridians. By challenging this illegal abuse of power we can make sure that no Governor can overturn the results of a free election because he doesn’t like the outcome.”