Politico Florida By MATT DIXON and GARY FINEOUT 9/23/2020
Florida AG calls for criminal inquiry into Bloomberg’s $16M felon voter donation
Florida‘s Republican attorney general on Wednesday urged the FBI and state authorities to investigate former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg‘s pledge to spend $16 million helping convicted felons regain their voting rights in the nation’s largest swing state.
The attorney general, Ashley Moody, said in a letter to top law enforcement officials that she was asked by Gov. Ron DeSantis, another Republican, to review the donation Bloomberg announced on Tuesday. Moody said she quickly decided additional scrutiny was warranted.
“After preliminarily reviewing this limited public information and law, it appears further investigation is warranted,†Moody wrote in a letter to Michael McPherson, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Tampa office, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Richard Swearingen. “Accordingly, I request that your agencies further investigate the matter and take appropriate steps as merited.â€
The move comes just two weeks before Florida’s voter registration deadline and 12 days after a federal appeals court upheld a restrictive new state law that requires former felons to clear court debts before registering to vote.
More:
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/09/23/florida-ag-calls-for-criminal-inquiry-into-bloombergs-16m-felon-voter-donation-1317995