MIAMI — Lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday argued that because his administration was busy dealing with Hurricane Ian last year, it didn’t violate the state’s public records law when it failed to turn over documents related to its plan to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts in September.
Nathan Forrester, Florida’s senior deputy solicitor general who is representing the governor, urged a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal to reverse a lower court’s decision that concluded the state had violated that law and ordered the state to turn over records, emails, phone logs and contracts related to the flights that garnered national attention.
The governor’s office received “three, sizable, multifaceted records requests” two days before Hurricane Ian made landfall, Forrester argued. “At the time, EOG [executive office of the governor] was already handling more than 150 pending records requests, and that number would balloon to more than 260 in the next couple of weeks.”
