Former Florida COVID data scientist claims the government is retaliating against her for releasing raid video
Rebekah Jones, the COVID-19 data scientist whose home was raided Monday by Florida state police, appeared on Wednesday’s Erin Burnett OutFront and claimed that the police released her personal information online in retaliation for a video she posted of the raid. In the video she posted, Jones can be heard yelling about the officers pointing guns at her young children.
“I only turned the camera on in case something with the arrest didn’t go right. I never expected they’d storm into my house or point guns at my children,” Jones said. “Since then the police have released my home address and my private phone number online, which just feels like further retaliation for releasing the video in the first place.”
That’s not the only form of retaliation Jones is alleging. A plea deal in a misdemeanor case Jones is involved in was rescinded the day after the raid, and Jones believes that was the doing of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I think my lawyer laid that out clearly today in the hearing that this was further state retaliation,” Jones said. “Prosecuting somebody who’s writing about abuse they suffered from an ex-boyfriend years ago when they were in college isn’t a winnable case to begin with. So by trying to rescind that offer, which we hope that they will honor, that they will honor their word on that, isn’t something that’s ever gonna happen for them. And every move of this has had the governor’s stamp on it.”
State Attorney Jack Campbell said it’s not unusual to cancel negotiations when the defendant finds themselves the subject of an investigation for a new crime.
Jones first drew the ire of DeSantis in May when she was fired from the Florida Department of Health (DOH) for, she says, refusing to manipulate COVID data to be more favorable as the governor was attempting to reopen the state. She’s been an outspoken critic of the DeSantis’s handling of COVID-19 ever since.
Jones is accused of illegally tapping into a DOH emergency messaging system and sending a message to employees about speaking up about COVID numbers in Florida. The judge who signed the search warrant for the raid on Jones’s home, Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes, is a recent appointee of DeSantis, and Jones doesn’t believe that’s a coincidence.
“I actually found out that he had been sworn in less than a month before he signed off on that,” Jones said, adding, “To be the most recent DeSantis appointee assigned to family court, and to have this be the first thing that you sign off on, I think that speaks for itself.”
On Monday following the raid, Jones said that she believed it was meant to intimidate her and others into silence, but that she would not be intimidated. On Wednesday, she had another message for DeSantis.
“Just leave us alone. We’re just trying to do science. We’re just trying to do research. Just give us the chance and leave us alone. That’s all that I would say to this man,” Jones said. “It’s just, let us do the work. If you’re doing a good job, there’s nothing to hide.”
Erin Burnett OutFront airs weeknights at 7 p.m. on CNN.
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