SARASOTA – A Sarasota attorney publicly calls out Gov. Ron DeSantis after resigning from his state job on Twitter.
It wasn’t the easiest of choices for local attorney Ron Filipkowski. But what ultimately led to his resignation was after a search warrant was granted for FDLE agents to raid the home of known whistleblower Rebekah Jones.
“I’m just a small person in a relatively minor government role, but hey, everyone of us counts,” said Filipkowski.
Filipkowski, a Sarasota based attorney, held the position of Commissioner and Vice Chair for the 12th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission for a decade.
Appointed by then-Governor Rick Scott twice and then again by Governor Ron DeSantis, he’s part of the committee that selects judges for Southwest Florida.
But on Tuesday, he sent shock waves on Twitter after publicly calling out the governor’s response in addressing the pandemic and for the raid of the home of known whistleblower Rebekah Jones.
“DeSantis needs to worry less about what I’m writing about and more about the people who are sick and dying in his state,” said Jones.
It was back in May that Jones says she lost her job after she refused requests by Governor DeSantis to manipulate data to suggest Florida was ready to ease coronavirus restrictions.
After Filipkowski saw the video Jones posted of the raid, and further looking into the search warrant, he says in his resignation he “no longer wish[ed] to serve the current government of Florida in any capacity.”
“I really looked at [the governor’s COVID response] as separate and distinct from my role in the JNC because it was just a medical issue not a legal issue,” said Filipkowski. “But the raid of Rebekah Jones’ house completely changed my view of everything because it brought it home as a criminal lawyer.”
Since sending out his resignation tweet around lunch time, it’s been retweeted more than 20,000 times and liked by more than 115,000 people as of this report.
He says he didn’t expect the attention but hopes he can inspire people to come out against those in the current administration who are withholding information from the people they are meant to serve.
“It’s one thing if you want to use the politics or give a speech or go on TV, but to use police officers and law enforcement to go into someone’s home in front of their children…that’s…that’s not America,” said Filipkowski.
Filipkowski says Gov. DeSantis hasn’t reached out to him since sending out his tweet and doesn’t expect to hear from his administration. He just wants others to speak out and no longer feel silenced.
The FDLE claims they raided Jones home after they determined an “unauthorized message” was sent after using an IP address coming from her home that “illegally hacked into their emergency alert system.”
