Frank Artiles’ phone and the public’s right to know | Editorial

The accused political dirty trickster Frank Artiles challenged the public’s right to know in a Miami courtroom — and lost. That means the public won. It’s an encouraging sign for the future of democracy in Florida, but it’s also a valuable reminder that shining light in dark places doesn’t simply happen. It takes action by Florida news organizations and a judge’s sound interpretation of state law.

Artiles, 48, is a disgraced ex-Republican state senator from Miami-Dade. He’s the central figure in a political scandal in which he’s accused of recruiting and paying a political neophyte friend to run as a sham or “ghost” candidate last fall in a pivotal state Senate race. The case has the potential to expose, at long last, a shameful pattern of political dirty tricks funded by secret “dark money” in Florida.

The ghost, Alexis Rodriguez, ran for the Senate District 37 seat with no party affiliation against Democratic Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez and Republican Ileana Garcia, a founder of a 2016 “Latinas for Trump” group.

Garcia won by 32 votes with a big push from Alexis Rodriguez, who got more than 6,000 votes despite having no visible campaign, platform, money or ideas. The one transaction on his campaign account was a personal loan of $2,000 — not nearly enough money to pay for a serious run for office. He switched parties at the last minute from Republican to NPA, lied about where he actually lived and lied to WPLG-Channel 10 reporter Glenna Milberg when she knocked on his door.

Rodriguez has admitted to two violations of state ethics laws and agreed to pay fines of $6,500, including a $5,000 penalty for “accepting money from another based on the understanding that (he) would change his party affiliation, qualify to run in the 2020 Florida Senate race, and file a false” financial disclosure statement. The case goes before the Commission on Ethics on July 23.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle began the criminal investigation last fall and has filed multiple felony counts against Artiles and Alexis Rodriguez.

Investigators gathered relevant evidence from Artiles’ cell phone, iPad and laptop computers. The material usually remains exempt from public records laws as part of a criminal investigation. But when the state shared the contents with Artiles and his legal team as part of pre-trial discovery, it became public record, with some specific exemptions such as bank account numbers, phone numbers and private medical records.

As the scandal widened, reporters sought to examine the trove of Artiles’ phone records, text messages and emails in an effort to unlock the great mystery of this case: Who spent the $550,000 that paid for a direct mail campaign to Miami-Dade voters that advanced the fraudulent candidacy of Alexis Rodriguez? We don’t yet know the full story. The money was funneled through a nonprofit group whose address was an out-of-state UPS box and not required to disclose its finances under Florida law. A fraud on the people of Florida, pure and simple.

The contents of Artiles’ inbox could reveal tentacles in all directions, and he didn’t want some of them exposed. His attorneys tried to block release of details of financial transactions involving Wade Scales, a South Florida man who gave Alexis Rodriguez $9,000 at Artiles’ direction, according to prosecutors. Artiles can assert a constitutional right of privacy on his own behalf, but not for others. If he was a financial conduit for larger political forces with deeper pockets bent on fixing an election, that must be found out.

Attorneys for the Orlando Sentinel and other news outlets went to court this week to vigorously oppose Artiles’ efforts to prevent release of relevant evidence. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson ordered the release of the materials, except for information that’s already exempt from disclosure (you can watch the three-hour hearing on YouTube). The judge expressed a legitimate concern that the release of information unrelated to the elections case could be used to harass private citizens.

Republicans legislators defended this year’s changes to election laws as necessary to protect “election integrity” in Florida. If they really cared about election integrity, they would have intervened in this case on the side of the news outlets to support release of the Artiles documents. Those outlets included the Miami Herald, New York Times, Key Biscayne Independent, Gannett, Florida Press Association, First Amendment Foundation and Florida Center for Government Accountability.

In Florida as elsewhere, local journalism has been in a long, difficult downward spiral, caused by the financial upheaval of the newspaper industry, which has weakened many newsrooms. But we are still here and still serving as surrogates for the public in pressing for access to critical information. The public’s right to know remains paramount.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, Editorial Writer Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com .