Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did not say that he would “examine the legality of any extradition request” made for former U.S. President Donald Trump, as suggested in a fabricated quote circulating online. DeSantis said at a media briefing on March 20 that he had “no interest in getting involved” in a potential extradition of Trump, a Florida resident, who is expecting to be indicted in New York for covering up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The earliest iteration Reuters found of the screenshot with the fabricated DeSantis quote stems from an account that shared it as a hypothetical statement, although the image was further shared by some users as if the statement was made by DeSantis himself.
The text attributed to DeSantis said that the New York District Attorney is “allegedly seeking to take Trump into custody on spurious charges,” and that DeSantis would exercise his “lawful authority as Governor to examine the legality of any extradition request.”
One user shared the screenshot on Instagram and added a caption claiming that it was “from DeSantis” (here).
Examples of the fabricated statement shared on social media can be seen (here) and (here).
The earliest iteration Reuters found of the screenshot was shared in a March 18 tweet, where the user referred to it as a hypothetical statement, archived (archive.is/BgJym).
Reuters did not find any reports citing the alleged statement by DeSantis (archive.is/wip/YzyR0).
Media reports that New York prosecutors could soon indict Trump on charges related to allegedly covering up hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels have sparked speculation that an indictment of the former president is imminent (here) , (here) , (here).
Jeremy Redfern, deputy press secretary at the Office of Florida Governor told Reuters via email that the only remark DeSantis has made on the topic is viewable in a video from a press briefing (here, from 22.20s mark).
In the March 20 briefing, DeSantis said that the “Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor, and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” referring to Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.
At the 22.52s timestamp DeSantis said: “And in terms of, we are not involved in this and won’t be involved in this. I have no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA.”
Media outlets covering DeSantis’ March 20 briefing reported that he said he has "no interest in getting involved" in a potential extradition of the former president (here), (here), (here).
VERDICT
Missing context. In a March 20 press briefing, DeSantis said that he had “no interest in getting involved” in a potential extradition of Trump to face charges in New York. The fabricated statement that he would “examine the legality of any extradition request” was first cast as hypothetical, but some have shared it as though it was made by the governor.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts (here).
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.