The Florida State Senate is on hold to remove a progressive prosecutor who is suing Gov. Ron DeSantis for suspending him from his job for promising not to prosecute cases arising out of Florida’s 15th floor -week abortion ban resulted.
Andrew Warren, who was elected Hillsborough County’s attorney general, said he filed the lawsuit Wednesday morning. Warren is accused of being funded by billionaire George Soros, who was a campaign donor.
“Without warning, I was forced out of my office by an armed congressman, removed from my elected position, and replaced with an accomplice of Ron DeSantis,” he claimed.
Within 12 hours after Warren’s attorneys filed a motion in federal court to challenge his suspension, the Florida Senate temporarily stayed its proceedings to consider Warren’s impeachment, Senate President Wilton Simpson said.
Simpson urged senators to stay proceedings related to Warren’s suspension pending “a final determination in this pending litigation.”
Warren accused DeSantis of violating his First Amendment right to free speech and violating the Florida state constitution, in what Warren called a “blatant abuse of power.”
“There is so much more at stake here than my job. Ron DeSantis hopes to get away with overturning a fair election and losing the votes of hundreds of thousands of Floridians,” Warren said.
“By taking action against this illegal abuse of power, we can ensure that no governor can throw out the results of an election because he doesn’t like the result.”
DeSantis’ office told , “It is not surprising that Warren, who was suspended for refusing to obey the law, would file a groundless lawsuit challenging his suspension.”
“We look forward to responding in court,” said Governor’s spokeswoman Taryn Fenske.
The Florida State Senate will stay its trial to impeach Hillsborough County Attorney Andrew Warren until his lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is resolved
The popular Republican governor publicly announced his executive order on Warren’s suspension during a press conference at the attorney’s home court in Tampa on Aug. 4.
He suspended Warren, a Democrat, and accused him of “derelict of duty” and “incompetence” as Hillsborough County’s elected attorney general.
Warren had vowed not to prosecute those who seek or perform abortions, or those who offer gender-affirming treatments.
Standing among Hillsborough County law enforcement officials who claimed Warren was soft on crime, DeSantis said the prosecutor “ignored the law” for refusing to enforce new policies on abortion and gender-affirming surgery.
The governor justified Warren’s suspension by claiming he was rooting out a “spook” of activist prosecutors he blamed for rising crime rates in several Democrat-run cities.
“We’ve seen across the country in recent years that individual prosecutors have taken it upon themselves to determine what laws they like and will enforce and what laws they don’t like,” DeSantis said. “We’re not going to let this pathogen that’s spread across the country ignore the law, we’re not going to let that get a foothold here in the state of Florida.”
But Warren persists in his lawsuit that DeSantis suspends him over their differing beliefs.
“The governor’s authority is not unlimited. He can contradict my political views. He can contradict my philosophy of criminal justice. He can even contradict my unwavering commitment to public safety, fairness and justice,” he said.
“And he can do all those things because he’s protected by the First Amendment.”
He added, “But the First Amendment doesn’t just protect him. It protects everyone. Even those of us with whom he disagrees.’
Warren claimed DeSantis “took control of the office people voted me to” by showing up at his door “with an armed proxy.”
During his Aug. 4 news conference at Andrew Warren’s home stadium, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said he was issuing an executive order suspending the Democratic Attorney for his refusal to follow the governor’s new policy
He was allegedly prevented from keeping files and emails on his computer that he believed could be tampered with.
Earlier this month, DeSantis said of Warren, “In June 2021, he signed a letter saying he would not enforce bans on underage sex reassignment surgery.”
The governor went on to accuse Warren of being funded by billionaire George Soros, also saying that after the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights, the attorney signed a letter saying he would not make laws protecting abortion rights prevail in the state of Florida.’
Warren told the Tampa Bay Times in 2020 that he believes Soros donated money to his campaign.
Since the fall, other questions about his funds have been raised, such as a new report in the Florida Standard accusing Warren of using taxpayer money to fund his progressive activism.
The report alleges Warren used taxpayer money to tour the country from 2017 to 2022 on trips associated with the progressive group Fair and Just Prosecutions.
Warren was questioned about the report by a reporter from right-wing newspaper One America News on Wednesday.
He replied, ‘If your question isn’t related to the lawsuit, I won’t take the question.’