“To take the position that you have veto power over state laws is untenable,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tampa, surrounded by law enforcement. Warren responded hours later, accusing DeSantis of “trying to subvert democracy here in Hillsborough County.” At a previously scheduled press conference, during which he named two suspects in a pair of 40-year-old murders, Warren defiantly declared, “I am still the duly elected district attorney of Hillsborough County.” “If the governor thinks he can do a better job, then he should run for attorney general or not for president,” Warren said, referring to reports that DeSantis is widely considered a contender for the GOP nomination in 2024. Warren he has not said whether he intends to take legal action to overturn the suspension, nor is it clear what will happen if he attempts to continue working as a prosecutor. Earlier Thursday, the website of the Office of The State Attorney 13th Judicial Circuit of Florida went into “maintenance mode.” By evening, it was back online featuring DeSantis’ nominee to replace Warren, Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Susan Lopez. The move by DeSantis, a Republican, to oust a Democrat elected twice by Hillsborough voters drew an immediate and sharp rebuke from Democratic lawmakers and state officials. Minority Leader Sen. Lauren Book said DeSantis “behaved more like a dictator than ‘America’s governor.’” And Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democratic candidate for governor, called Warren’s suspension “a politically motivated attack on a worldwide respected state prosecutor, democratically elected to exercise prosecutorial discretion.” “Ron DeSantis is a pathetic bully,” Fried said. DeSantis said the decision to suspend Warren came after he asked staff to look into whether some state’s attorneys in Florida had taken it upon themselves to “determine what laws they like and enforce,” after watching prosecutors in other states refuse to practice charges for certain crimes. . That review led them to Warren, who has become an outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform and overturning wrongful convictions. “The governor shouldn’t have come to Hillsborough County and cleaned up our mess,” former Tampa Police Chief Brian Duggan said during the news conference. “That’s really the point.” Under Florida law, a governor can remove “any county officer” for a felony, dereliction of duty, drunkenness, incapacity, permanent incapacity to perform official duties, or commission of a felony. The Florida Senate has the power to reinstate a suspended official or remove that person from office. “It’s not a dereliction of duty,” Warren told CNN’s Laura Coates on Thursday night. “Actually, we’re not even talking about things I’ve done in the office. We’re talking about things I might do in the future… I mean, this is out of, like, Orwellian 1984 thought police.” Warren argued that he always used his prosecutorial discretion to consider charges on a “case-by-case” basis. DeSantis appointed Lopez to serve as state attorney during Warren’s suspension. He previously appointed Lopez as a district court judge in Hillsborough County. DeSantis told reporters he did not speak with Warren before the announcement. Warren was first elected attorney general in 2016, defeating a longtime Republican incumbent in a close race that featured a left-leaning Florida county. He was re-elected in 2020, winning a higher percentage of the Hillsborough County vote than President Joe Biden. During his early years in office, Warren kept a relatively low profile as he quietly modernized the bureau and enacted criminal justice reforms. In 2018, he endorsed the re-election campaign of the county’s Republican Sheriff-elect, Chad Chronister, and frequently held press conferences with law enforcement. In turn, Chronister praised Warren in the months leading up to the Democratic campaign for a second term. But Chronister hosted Thursday’s press conference at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and delivered a stinging critique of Warren while standing next to DeSantis. (Chronister’s wife, Nicole DeBartolo, and father-in-law, Edward DeBartolo, a former NFL owner who was pardoned a presidential check by Donald Trump, donated a combined $472,000 to DeSantis’ re-election campaign.) Warren became increasingly critical of DeSantis during the pandemic. Early in the coronavirus outbreak, he publicly condemned the governor’s decision to allow megachurches to operate in Florida days after a Tampa pastor was arrested for defiantly holding an in-person service. Later that summer, Warren announced that he would not prosecute 67 people who were arrested at a protest following the death of George Floyd. But it was Warren’s foray into the country’s political divide over transgender and abortion care that sparked Thursday’s action by DeSantis. Warren last year joined dozens of local and state prosecutors who signed a letter authored by the progressive organization Fair and Just Prosecution denouncing laws that criminalize doctors who provide gender-affirming care to transgender people. After the US Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate constitutional protections for abortion, Warren signed another Fair and Justice letter pledging to use discretion not to use “limited resources of the criminal justice system” to to prosecute those who seek, provide or support abortions; The position on abortion has put Warren at odds with a new state law banning abortions in Florida after 15 weeks. DeSantis, who last year signed a ban on transgender girls and women from participating in school sports as women, has also taken steps to ban gender-affirming child care, which he called Thursday “literally cuts off private parts of small children”. “These are really, I think, outrageous and again, it’s beyond the exercise of discretion,” DeSantis said. DeSantis has used his power to alienate some elected officials more than his predecessors. In one of his first actions as governor, DeSantis suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who was overseeing the police response to the deadly mass shooting at a Parkland high school. But previous suspensions were the result of actions already taken by elected officials. Warren’s suspension is due in part to actions yet to be taken. Specifically, the state’s new abortion law is facing a legal challenge and a judge said it violates the state constitution, though a higher court said otherwise. Warren said he had not read DeSantis’ executive order, but said he “heard it contains a lot of speculation and lies.” “Based on the governor’s track record with unconstitutional orders,” Warren said, “I have a feeling this will be just as unconstitutional.” This story has been updated with additional developments.
