NYPost | Rep. Matt Gaetz warned billionaire Michael Bloomberg that he may be facing a criminal probe for paying the outstanding fines and fees of 32,000 convicted felons in Florida so they could regain their right to vote ahead of the November election.
Speaking to Fox News’ “Hannity”
Tuesday evening, Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he had spoken to Florida Attorney
General Ashley Moody prior to his appearance on the show about
Bloomberg’s voter effort in the Sunshine State.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the former NYC mayor had raised over
$16 million for, and donated $5 million to, the Florida Rights
Restoration Coalition.
Bloomberg’s push would benefit ex-cons as part of a 2018 state
constitutional amendment allowing felons who have served their time to
regain their right to vote.
Before they can regain that right, however, they need to pay any fines, fees or restitution.
In a statement to Axios, a representative for Bloomberg said, “The
right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and no American should be
denied that right. Working together with the Florida Rights Restoration
Coalition, we are determined to end disenfranchisement and the
discrimination that has always driven it.”
To Gaetz and Moody, however, there are legal concerns regarding Bloomberg’s political spending in this specific case.
“I believe there may be a criminal investigation already underway of
the Bloomberg-connected activities in Florida,” Gaetz told Sean Hannity.
“[Under Florida law] it’s a third-degree felony for someone to either
directly or indirectly provide something of value to impact whether or
not someone votes. So the question is whether or not paying off
someone’s fines and legal obligations counts as something of value, and
it clearly does. If Michael Bloomberg was offering to pay off people’s
credit card debts, you would obviously see the value in that.
“When you improve someone’s net worth by eliminating their financial
liabilities, that’s something of value. Normally, it would be very
difficult to prove that that was directly linked to impacting whether or
not someone was going to vote. But they literally wrote their own
admission,” the Florida Republican argued, referencing a Washington Post report.
