Authorities in Florida on Monday raided the home of Rebekah Jones, a former state official who has said she was ousted earlier this year for refusing to censor the state’s coronavirus data.
In a search warrant, an investigator with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said that a person at Jones’ home who was using her email address illegally accessed a state-run communications platform and sent a Nov. 10 group text telling people that it was “time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead.”
“You know this is wrong,” the text said, according to the warrant. “You don’t have to be part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.”
The investigator, Noel Pratts, said the agents raided Jones’ Tallahassee home in search of computer hardware and electronics.
According to the warrant, the Department of Health uses the platform, ReadyOp, for emergency management.
Jones led the effort to establish a public information portal that listed the number of coronavirus deaths and cases in the state. In May, she told a local TV station that her exit from the Florida Department of Health was “not voluntary” and happened after she refused to “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen.”
The Florida Department of Health did not comment on Jones’ firing.
In a message to NBC News on Monday, Jones denied sending the Nov. 10 text.
“Pretty sure if I was gonna go through the trouble of learning how to hack, then hacking DOH of all places, I’d be damn sure to get the death count right.”
She said the accurate Nov. 10 death toll was 17,460.
Jones posted video of the raid Monday and said state police “pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.”
She said the agents seized evidence of “corruption at the state level” and blamed the raid on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“This is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly,” she said. “This is what happens to people who speak truth to power.”
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Gretl Plessinger, said Jones refused to answer the door when agents knocked and hung up when they called her.
“After several attempts and verbal notifications that law enforcement officers were there to serve a legal search warrant, Ms. Jones eventually came to the door and allowed agents to enter,” Plessinger said. “Ms. Jones’ family was upstairs when agents made entry into the home.”
Cyrus Farivar contributed.
