Rebekah Jones: Fired Florida data scientist jails himself and tests positive for Covid-19

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Rebekah Jones has been charged with one count of violations against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices, the FDLE said. She surrendered to Leon County Jail on Sunday.

Jones walked out of jail on Monday afternoon after posting bail. Wearing a mask, she told reporters outside of prison that she had just tested positive for Covid-19.

Jones made no other comments as she walked to a vehicle next to her attorney.

In a series of tweets Saturday, Jones announced her intention to report herself to authorities.

“To protect my family from ongoing police brutality, and to show that I am willing to fight anything they throw at me, I turn myself into the Florida police on Sunday night,” Jones tweeted.

The governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out. ‘

Jones was fired from the Florida Department of Health in May and has repeatedly criticized Governor Ron DeSantis’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

Putting 'politics above life': DeSantis has been criticized for Florida's response to Covid-19
The FDLE has said it is investigating whether Jones has gained access to a state messaging system without permission to call up state officials to speak up on Covid-19 deaths.

“It is time to speak before another 17,000 people die,” said a November 10 message, the affidavit said. ‘You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak up before it’s too late. ‘

Officials traced that message to an IP address associated with Jones’s home, according to an affidavit of search warrant.

Jones’s home was raided on December 7. Jones has filed a lawsuit alleging that FDLE officials violated her First Amendment rights, denied her due process, and wrongfully seized her computers, cell phone, and storage media during a search of her home.

The indictment alleges that IP addresses are often “spoofed” and refers to news articles that found that the username and password for the system of the message that initiated the investigation were publicly available on the health department’s website.

Governor is being viewed more and more critically

The investigation into Jones comes as DeSantis is increasingly confronted with his approach to the pandemic.

In April, the governor falsely claimed that Covid-19 had killed no one under the age of 25.
And last spring, the Florida Department of Health asked the Florida Medical Examiners Commission not to release the committee’s comprehensive list of Covid-19 deaths, the committee chairman told CNN.
Commission of Medical Investigators: State officials asked us to withhold death rates from Covid-19
Despite multiple peaks of Covid-19 in the state, DeSantis has refused to allow municipalities to enforce their own mask mandates or stricter social distance laws. This limitation of local control has been criticized by mayors of both parties.
An investigation by the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida found that the DeSantis government was making efforts to minimize bad news about the pandemic and spread misinformation.
Some health department spokespersons were told in September not to make statements until after the November election, and officials withheld crucial data about the spread of the virus, the paper reported.

Jones, who helped build the state’s coronavirus dashboard, has become one of the governor’s harshest critics, publicly claiming that DeSantis was responsible for the rising death toll.

`` We are dying here, '' Florida newspaper says in plea to the governor to issue a statewide mask mandate
In May, state officials said Jones had been fired for “displaying a repeated form of insubordination” and modified a state data portal without input or approval from epidemiologists or her supervisors.
But Jones said she was fired after refusing to falsify the Covid-19 data.
Jones filed a whistleblower complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations in July.
After her discharge, Jones published her own dashboard of Covid-19 statistics. She said she received internal data from people working for the state, including what she said was evidence that state officials “lied about things like internal reports and communications from the CDC in January (2020).”

That evidence was on “a lot of flash drives” that agents used when they raided her home, Jones said. She said she also had documents that were legally accessible from the time she was a state employee.

Legal experts said the material could theoretically be used to target Jones’ sources if they break rules about sharing internal information.

The search warrant allowed officers to recover ‘all computer equipment’ that stores or transmits data, including hard drives, devices, software and correspondence ‘relating to the possession, receipt, origin or distribution of data pertaining to the facilitating computer crime. . ”

Florida labor attorneys said state employees who leaked internal data to Jones could face disciplinary action or possibly legal trouble – although they could potentially seek protection under state whistleblowing laws.

CNN’s Curt Devine, Kay Jones and Casey Tolan contributed to this report.

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