Top DeSantis attorneys penned letters threatening to prosecute local TV stations over abortion ad, affidavit says

Top attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis penned the cease-and-desist letters sent by Florida’s health department threatening to criminally prosecute local TV stations over their airing of an abortion rights ad, the department’s former general counsel said in court documents.

Top attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis penned the cease-and-desist letters sent by Florida’s health department threatening to criminally prosecute local TV stations over their airing of an abortion rights ad, the department’s former general counsel said in court documents. In an affidavit filed on Monday, John Wilson, the former general counsel for Florida’s Department of Health, said that Sam Elliot, a top attorney for the DeSantis administration, provided him with pre-written letters to the TV stations on October 3. Wilson was directed by Ryan Newman and Jed Doty, both general counsel for the DeSantis administration, to send the letters under his own name, he stated in the affidavit. “I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to October 3,” Wilson wrote. Wilson resigned from his post the following week, a decision he said he made “in lieu of complying with directives from Newman and Doty to send out further correspondence to the media outlets,” after the threats to local outlets ignited outrage. “A man is nothing without his conscience,” Wilson wrote in his resignation letter. “It has become clear in recent days that I cannot join you on the road that lies before this Agency.” Newman also directed Wilson to find outside attorneys who could be retained by the health department to assist with actions against the local stations, the affidavit said.