DeSantis Hit With Lawsuit Over Bogus ‘Election Fraud’ Arrests

The DeSantis administration in Florida has been hit with a lawsuit that alleges that last year's "election fraud" arrests (20 of them, to be exact) were nothing more than a political ploy to bolster the Republican governor's credibility for his expected presidential bid. The charges against nearly all of the individuals have been dropped, and Florida Republicans actually had to change the law in order to make future prosecutions even possible after it was determined that the administration screwed things up so badly. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Well, folks, Florida, governor Ron DeSantis says he gears up for his expected presidential bid, which could be announced at any point now because he was allegedly waiting for the Florida legislative session to end. It's now over, so let's have it Ron. But he's got a new little hurdle he has to overcome. In addition to, of course, Disney expanding their lawsuit against Ron DeSantis. This past week, DeSantis was also hit with a lawsuit from the League of Women voters over his bogus election fraud arrest that he made such a big deal about last year. So let's rewind the clock a little bit. If you'll remember about a year or so ago, Ron DeSantis created his election police force, a police force in the state capitol of Tallahassee that he gets to control and their sole job is to go out there, find people committing voter fraud and arrest them on the spot.

So then last summer, Ron DeSantis holds this big press conference, makes a big show of it and says, folks, we got 'em. We got those voter fraudsters, and they arrested 20 people, mostly black, because these were former felons who under Florida Constitution, on an amendment that we, the voters passed, were given their rights to vote back. And Ron DeSantis and his Republican friends didn't like that. So they passed a bunch of new laws after voters gave felons the right to vote back, um, that said, Nope, you also gotta pay all your restitutions, all your court fees. You can't be on probation, you can't be on parole. You have to have finished everything completely. And if you haven't and you vote, then you're voting illegally. All right? That's not what the amendment to the Constitution said, but okay. And then these felons went to register to vote, and when their voter registrations were sent to the state, the state said, yep, this person can vote.

Here you go. So these 20 people voted, Ron DeSantis arrested them and said, aha, you had not met the requirements. You're going to jail. Well, here we are, almost a year later, we've seen the video clips where the people had no idea what was even happening. Even the cops were sympathetic to 'em. They're like, look, we have to do this. We don't get it either, but we have to. Most of those prosecutions have been dropped. In fact, almost all of them, I'm pretty sure have been dropped because there was no criminal intent, because these people were actually told by Ron DeSantis administration that they were legally allowed to vote. And so after that was revealed, and all these pro uh, prosecutions and arrests fell through, the legislature passed another law that says that the burden of proof is now on the voter. It doesn't matter if the state says you can vote, it's still your responsibility to make sure you're legally allowed. And the state does not keep any records of who is and who is not now. So the state cannot give you an accurate

Answer. You have to just know whether or not you can vote legally. And if you're not and you do vote, then you go to jail. It's a whole horrendous system. Ron DeSantis has absolutely twisted the law to try to bust these people, and now he's being sued for it because the League of Women voters says that these, you know, show theater arrests that you did were just a buildup for your presidential campaign.