Credit: Photo via DeSantis/Twitter
An open-government group Monday filed a lawsuit seeking to force Gov. Ron DeSantisโ€™ administration to release additional records about a controversial decision last month to fly migrants from Texas to Marthaโ€™s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

The Florida Center for Government Accountability filed the lawsuit in Leon County circuit court and alleged that the governorโ€™s office did not comply with requests to release a series of records about the flights.

Among other things, the group sought records, phone logs or text logs that could show communications by DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier about the flights, according to the lawsuit. Also, it sought any records that would show communications with Texas Gov. Greg Abbottโ€™s office about relocating migrants.

The lawsuit said the DeSantis administration provided records Friday but that they were not โ€œresponsiveโ€ to requests made Sept. 20 and Sept. 21 under Floridaโ€™s public-records law.

โ€œNone of the records produced by defendants are records sent or received by the EOG (Executive Office of the Governor) or governor,โ€ the lawsuit, filed by Sarasota attorney Andrea Flynn Mogensen and Tampa attorney Matthew Farmer, said. โ€œNone of the records are within the timeframe of records sought in the first or second requests.โ€

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The lawsuit said the DeSantis administration provided records that had been โ€œsent to or received from another agency.โ€ It did not detail those records, but the administration released documents Friday to the Miami Herald and other news organizations involving the Florida Department of Transportation, which helped carry out the flights.

In an email attached to the lawsuit, the governorโ€™s office described the documents released Friday as the โ€œfirst productionโ€ of records.

โ€œThe Office of Open Government (in the governorโ€™s office) has been working to retrieve, review and produce documents responsive to the many public records requests we have received regarding the flights to Marthaโ€™s Vineyard,โ€ the email from the office said. โ€œIn an effort to produce documents more efficiently, this office is retrieving, reviewing and producing any documents related to the aforementioned flights.โ€

The two flights of migrants drew national attention and came as DeSantis regularly criticizes the Biden administration on border policy and the handling of undocumented immigrants. DeSantis and other Republicans also have heavily criticized โ€œsanctuaryโ€ communities, such as Marthaโ€™s Vineyard.

The flights of about 50 people, mostly Venezuelans, started in San Antonio, Texas, stopped at an airport in the Northwest Florida community of Crestview and then headed north to Marthaโ€™s Vineyard. The DeSantis administration tapped into $12 million that the Legislature provided to transport undocumented immigrants from Florida โ€” though part of the controversy has centered on the migrant flights originating in Texas.

Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-North Miami Beach, has filed a lawsuit in Leon County circuit court, alleging the DeSantis administration violated the state Constitution and a separate law. Meanwhile, lawyers representing some asylum seekers flown to Massachusetts filed a potential class-action lawsuit against DeSantis, Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue and unidentified people who helped recruit the immigrants in Texas.

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