TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Newly released records from Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed that his public safety czar, Larry Keefe, communicated with a Destin-based contractor hired to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts using a private email account with the call name “Clarice Starling.”
They also confirmed that he used an encryption app to chat with James Montgomerie of Vertol Systems, the military contractor the state has paid nearly $3.5 million to relocate migrants to so-called “sanctuary states” under a program administered by the Florida Department of Transportation but overseen by Keefe.
Based on these new findings, the Florida Center for Government Accountability has filed a motion in its ongoing suit against FDOT asking to submit the new emails as evidence that not all the documents requested were released and that Montgomerie provided false evidence at trial.
“We filed a motion … in response to this production in the case pending against FDOT,” Barfield said. “I think these records are quite revealing as well as humorous.”
Clarice Starling was a fictional FBI profiler in the movie "The Silence of the Lambs” who interviewed Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer who ate one victim’s liver with “some fava beans and a nice Chianti,” to gain insights into another serial killer who skinned his victims.
The migrant relocation program was the brainchild of DeSantis, and was financed with $12 million approved by the Florida Legislature. The money came from interest earned on unused federal COVID-19 relief funds.
The Department of Justice launched an investigation in October into whether that money was misused.
There is also a pending contempt charge against the governor’s office for allegedly dragging out the release of public records the organization had requested on the migrant flights in September.
The new motion asks the judge in the FDOT case to reopen the evidentiary hearing and accept the emails as new evidence relating to documents Montgomerie’s possession that had not been produced before, and that the evidence shows Montgomerie “gave false testimony under oath at the hearing held on November 29.”
The email and attachment were records not previously released, the motion said, and refutes Montgomerie’s testimony about a draft sent via text message he claimed was a voluntary consent form for passengers to sign and not a draft of the contract.
Other emails not previously released rebut Montgomerie’s testimony, the motion says, and show Keefe provided draft language for Montgomerie to propose to the Department of Transportation.
In another, Keefe instructs Montgomerie, “This is the email channel to use.” And in another, he tells him to “See Signal,” referring to the encrypted messaging service that can also be set to automatically delete messages after a period of time.
The new emails also point to other records that so far have not been released, the motion says, and none of the new emails came from Montgomerie. The motion also states that Montgomerie has not produced all the records requested of him, despite his sworn testimony saying otherwise.
The recent EOG production demonstrates that Vertol failed to produce records in its possession that were responsive to the request,” the motion says.
The governor’s office had no additional comment beyond the Office of Open Government letter released Thursday to the FLCGA. Keefe and Montgomerie did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The new emails received by FCGA from the governor’s Office of Open Government on Thursday explain that in a search for additional records between Keefe and Vertol Systems “that we may have missed,” the OOG interviewed Keefe, who suggested they search for the keyword “Heat” in his personal account, 191keefe@gmail.com.
When that failed to produce any new documents, the OOG said, Keefe said they should look for “Heat 19.” Keefe told Montgomerie that was a call sign given him by now retired Lt. Gen. Donald C. Wurster, former commander of Special Operations at Hurlburt Field in Okaloosa County. Keefe was in private practice in Okaloosa County for decades before he was appointed by former President Donald Trump as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
President Joe Biden removed Keefe and dozens of Trump appointees when he took office, and Keefe was appointed by DeSantis to run his new public safety department at $131,725 a year.
Keefe said that was the call sign he used with Wurster when they exchanged messages.
“The keyword search led us to discover another email address belonging to Mr. Keefe – heatl9.heatl9@gmail.com, which the OOG didn’t know about,” the OOG said.
“The name on the “Heat 19″ account was ‘Clarice Starling’ — a related ‘call sign’ used by Mr. Keefe in his previous, private work with people in the military community,” the OOG said. “According to Mr. Keefe, he created and sometimes used this account while in private law practice to communicate via email in this setting.”
Vertol Systems was a former client of Keefe’s when he was in private practice.
“After discovering the “Heat 19″ email address, OOG said, it conducted a search for responsive records involving this address. “This search yielded the records we are producing now. Please note that we are producing all records we could locate with the “Heat 19″ email address that pertain to the Martha’s Vineyard flight, even records that fall outside the date range and scope of your request,” the OOG said.
In the latest released email exchanges, which go back to Aug. 26, Keefe and Montgomerie discuss suggested language for the contract to provide “transportation-related, humanitarian relocation services.”
Those services included “Project management, aircraft, crew, maintenance logistics, fuel, accommodation, coordination and planning, route preparation, route services, landing fees, ground handling and logistics and other Project-related expenses.”
The contracts and payments were handled by FDOT, but previously released records show that Keefe played a major role in coordinating the flights both in Florida and Texas with Perla Huerta, a former military intelligence officer working for Vertol Systems.
Vertol Systems was paid $615,000 for the first two flights that occurred Sept. 14. It received another $950,000 for a second and third flight of up to 50 migrants to Delaware and Illinois.
State business records show two additional payments of $950,000 to Vertol Systems for “relocation services.”
FLCGA says that it has still not received all the records it requested from the governor’s office and the FDOT regarding the flights to Martha’s Vineyard and canceled flights to Delaware and Illinois.
Meanwhile, the governor’s office has until midnight Tuesday to file a response to Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh’s order to show cause on the pending contempt charge in the separate case against the governor’s office. A hearing will be held in January on that issue.
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