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FLORIDA'S FIRST LADY FLIES A PRIVATE JET ⁠— AND WADES INTO AN ETHICS QUANDARY



On Sept. 30, Casey DeSantis flew from Tallahassee to Jacksonville on a corporate
jet controlled by Mori Hosseini, a longtime Republican donor. | Getty Images

By Matt Dixon

10/10/2019 05:05 AM EDT

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TALLAHASSEE — When first lady Casey DeSantis took a political donor’s jet to
attend both a Republican party fundraiser and a state policy event, she also
ventured into a gray area of state ethics law.

On Sept. 30, DeSantis flew from Tallahassee to Jacksonville on a corporate jet
controlled by Mori Hosseini, a longtime Republican donor. In Jacksonville, she
attended a fundraiser at Total Military Management, a defense contractor owned
by political donors to her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis.



After lunch, where she posed for pictures, the first lady took a 20-minute drive
to Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, where she made an official appearance
on behalf of the governor’s office to announce federal funding for a mental
health program.



Since her husband took office in January, Casey DeSantis has transformed the
largely ceremonial job of Florida’s first lady into a position of power over
state politics and policy. And as she exerts sway over decision making and
electioneering, she might be testing the limits of state ethics laws.

The jet she flew to Jacksonville is owned by ICI Aviation Leasing, a company
controlled by Hosseini, a GOP power broker whose companies have business before
the state.

Hosseini has been a strategic adviser to the governor, according to internal
campaign memos first reported by the Tampa Bay Times. In August, a Hosseini
company gave $25,000 to the DeSantis campaign.

After POLITICO ran a story on Casey DeSantis’ flight, Hosseini’s jet was blocked
on FlightAware, an online flight tracking system.

A spokesperson for the governor confirmed that the first lady took Hosseini’s
plane to the health care event, which the governor’s office touted in a press
release.

DeSantis spokesperson Meredith Beatrice acknowledged that the first lady
attended a private event on the trip, but refused to provide details. The office
“adheres to what is required by law,” Beatrice said.

Total Military Management Chief Operating Officer Kent Stermon confirmed
DeSantis’ attendance at the fundraiser.

“It is always good to see my good friend, first lady Casey DeSantis for lunch,”
Stermon told POLITICO in an email on Friday. “I held a successful fundraiser for
the Republican party of Florida. I appreciate the First Lady’s continued
friendship and support of the party.”

State ethics law forbids gifts to public officials from lobbyists or businesses
that employ lobbyists. And any gift valued at more than $100 must be reported.
The law speaks specifically to state employees, elected officials and appointed
officials, but is silent on how it applies to an unpaid and largely historically
ceremonial role like first lady.

Casey DeSantis is a first lady unlike any other. She has a prominent office in
the governor’s suite and regularly attends official policy meetings. And she’s
intimately involved in political fundraising for both her husband and the
Republican Party of Florida, which is an extension of the governor’s political
apparatus.




As she redefines the role of first lady, the Florida Commission on Ethics has
issued no opinions or information on how or whether state ethics and gift ban
laws might apply.

“The Commission has not issued any opinion regarding whether or not a First Lady
is a public officer for purposes of the ethics laws,” commission spokesperson
Kerrie Stillman said.

Speaking generally and not specifically about the Casey DeSantis trip, “if
travel is provided by anyone other than the person’s agency, the
transportation/travel would need to be viewed through the lens of the gift law,”
Stillman wrote in an email.

The governor’s office did not respond to a question about whether taxpayers paid
for the first lady’s travel on Hosseini’s jet.

Hosseini, who did not respond to questions about the DeSantis flight, has long
been a GOP donor and political adviser. His company, ICI homes, lists no
registered lobbyists. He is, however, on the board of three entities that do
employee contract lobbyists, state records show, including the University of
Florida and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and the International Speedway
Corp., which owns and manages race tracks, including Daytona International
Speedway.

Under state law, any other public official — appointed or elected — would almost
certainly not be allowed to take a donor’s plane to an official taxpayer-funded
state event unless the agency they work for paid for the travel. Public
officials can use jets owned by third parties to attend political events, trips
that typically are recorded as in-kind contributions to campaigns or committees,
or paid for by political committees or parties.

Mark Herron, an election law attorney who generally works with Democrats, said
gift bans, or laws banning public officials from taking anything of value from
registered lobbyists or those who employ them, probably don’t apply to the first
lady.

“The first lady is not a ‘reporting individual’ for the purposes of the gift
law, nor is she [an] ‘agency’ official for the purposes of the ‘no expenditure
law,’” Herron wrote in an email.

Total Military Management and Stermon are longtime political donors to Ron
DeSantis. Stermon gave $31,000 to DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaign, and federal
political action committees tied to the company contributed nearly $60,000 to
DeSantis during his three terms in Congress, federal election records show.

Stermon and Matt Connell, Total Military Management’s CEO, also own a Flagler
County condominium that DeSantis lived in for six months during his 2016
congressional re-election campaign. Because the company had donated politically
to DeSantis and lobbied Congress while he was a member, the living arrangements
drew a congressional ethics complaint. It was dropped when DeSantis left
Congress to run for governor.

Stermon and Connell served on DeSantis’ transition team. Stermon was appointed
by the governor to the State University System Board of Governors.


MOST READ


 1. WOMAN CONVICTED FOR STORMING PELOSI’S OFFICE ON JAN. 6


 2. CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN WHO VOTED TO IMPEACH TRUMP WINS REELECTION


 3. TRUMP’S JAN. 6 SUPPORTERS FETED AT HIS MAR-A-LAGO CAMPAIGN LAUNCH


 4. 2024 REPUBLICAN RIVALS PUT TRUMP ON NOTICE


 5. OPINION | HOW PANIC ON THE LEFT COULD SPARK A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

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