MIAMI – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Tampa’s top prosecutor Thursday, accusing him of incompetence and dereliction of duty for vowing not to prosecute those who seek or perform abortions.
In a surprising announcement, Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, suspended Andrew H. Warren, the elected Hillsborough County state’s attorney. In June, Mr. Warren, a Democrat, was among 90 elected prosecutors nationwide who pledged not to prosecute those who seek or perform abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Florida imposed a 15-week abortion ban in April.
The decision immediately raised concerns among Democrats, including Mr. Warren, who say the governor has become more and more heavy-handed.
Mr. DeSantis said the abortion statement and other actions by Mr. Warren amounts to “incompetence and willful defiance of his duties” and that the prosecutor’s approach to the job did not leave Mr. DeSantis more remedy than suspend it.
“When you flagrantly violate your oath of office, when you put yourself above the law, you have violated your duty, you have neglected your duty, and you are showing a lack of competence to be able to perform those duties,” said Mr. . DeSantis. to applause at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, where he was flanked by a group of uniformed sheriffs and police chiefs.
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The suspension of Mr. Warren, a rising Democratic star and frequent critic of DeSantis who is serving his second term as chief prosecutor of the 13th Judicial Circuit in Hillsborough County, was clearly surprising news even to his office, which had anticipated a thursday afternoon press conference to announce the development of a cold case murder. The conference was canceled after Mr. DeSantis announced the suspension of Mr. Warren on Thursday morning.
Mr Warren said in a statement that his suspension “spits in the face of voters”.
“Today’s political gimmick is an illegal excess that continues a dangerous pattern by Ron DeSantis of using his office to further his own political ambition,” said Mr. Warren, adding: “The people have a right to choose their own leaders, not have them dictated by a would-be presidential candidate who has shown time and time again that he is not accountable to anyone.”
The law enforcement officers who appeared with Mr. DeSantis expressed frustration with Mr. Warren for not prosecuting certain crimes. “Andrew Warren is a fraud,” said Brian Dugan, a former chief of the Tampa Police Department.
Sheriffs and police chiefs took turns praising Mr. DeSantis and criticizing the liberal-leaning cities of New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco by name. Anti-abortion groups also applauded Mr. DeSantis.
“You want to know why some people move to Florida?” Mr. DeSantis said. “Because their communities are no longer safe, thanks to prosecutors who think they know better.”
Even in a state where governors and prosecutors have been known to spar in the open, Mr. DeSantis – and his trumpet – left Florida officials stunned. Under Florida law, a governor can suspend state officials for wrongful acts including neglect of duty, incompetence, embezzlement, drunkenness or commission of a crime. The Republican predecessor of Mr. DeSantis, Rick Scott, tended to suspend elected officials only after they were charged with a crime.
In 2017, when Aramis D. Ayala, a Democrat who was then the state’s attorney in Orlando, surprised the state by saying she would not seek the death penalty in any case, Mr. Scott reassigned more than two dozen cases to another state attorney’s office. . But it did not suspend Ms. Ayala, who did not seek re-election after her term and is now running for Florida attorney general.
Mr. DeSantis has been much more aggressive. Shortly after taking office in 2019, he suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, a Democrat, blaming him for his handling of the 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland high school, even though Mr. Israel had not been criminally accused Mr. Israel unsuccessfully appealed his suspension to the courts and the State Senate and later lost a bid for re-election.
Mr. DeSantis is up for re-election in November and has faced growing criticism from Democrats that his approach to governing has become increasingly authoritarian. On Thursday, the two top Democrats vying to challenge him, Representative Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture commissioner, reacted to Mr. Warren referring to Mr. DeSantis in statements as a “would-be dictator” (Mr. Crist) and a “dictator” (Ms. Fried).
Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Just and Just Prosecution, which released the statement against the criminalization of abortion that Mr Warren signed in June, called his suspension “an unprecedented and dangerous intrusion into the separation of powers and the will of the voters”.
“Governors don’t handpick elected prosecutors, voters do,” he said in a statement. “With this outrageous reach, Governor DeSantis is sending a clear message that the will of the people of Hillsborough County matters less than his own political agenda.”
Mr. Warren was elected to a second four-year term with about 53 percent of the vote in 2020. He was one of several prosecutors who were backed in 2016 by groups backed by billionaire liberal investor George Soros. Mr. DeSantis did not name Mr. Soros on Thursday, but appeared to allude to it, saying that Mr. Warren had run a campaign funded by out-of-state donors. The same Mr. DeSantis has amassed a campaign war chest full of out-of-state donations.
“Criminalizing and prosecuting people who seek or provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice,” said Mr. Warren and the other prosecutors a their joint statement in June “Prosecutors should not be a part of this.”
Mr. Warren had previously criticized Mr. DeSantis for enacting anti-protest legislation and creating an election crimes office.
In his statements on Thursday, Mr. DeSantis cited a second statement from the Fair and Just Prosecutor that Mr. Warren signed off on a pledge not to criminalize “transgender people and gender-affirming health care.”
“I don’t think the people of Hillsborough want to have a basically woke agenda, where you’re deciding that your vision of social justice means that certain laws don’t have to be enforced,” said Mr. DeSantis.
Kitty Bennett contributed to the research.
