A Florida data scientist who accused the state of manipulating coronavirus data announced it would be released Sunday night after authorities issued an arrest warrant.
Rebekah Jones, one of the data scientists who helped make the Florida COVID-19 board, said on Twitter that she would surrender to authorities about a month after law enforcement stormed her home.
“To protect my family from continued police violence and to show that I am willing to fight whatever they throw at me, I become a police officer in Florida on Sunday night,” Jones tweeted. “The governor will not win his war against science and freedom of expression. He will not silence those who speak. “
To protect my family from continued police violence and to show that I am willing to fight whatever they throw at me, I become a police officer on Sunday night in Florida. The governor will not win his war against science and freedom of speech. He will not silence those who speak.
– Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) January 16, 2021
Jones has claimed she was removed from office in May because she refused to “manually change the data” to support the argument to lift coronavirus restrictions, but a spokeswoman for the governor. Ron DeSantis
Florida Republican Ron DeSantis closes ranks with Trump after the siege of the Capitol. Once the candidate in the battles, Trump’s aspirations in 2024 are already toasting after state and federal Capitol officials fight for the deployment of vaccines, he delays MORE (R) accused Jones in May of having “exhibited a repeated course of insubordination” and “flagrant disrespect.”
Police allege he used a Department of Health communications platform to send a Nov. 10 text telling other people it was “time to talk before another 17,000 people die.” Law enforcement acted under a search warrant on Dec. 7 to investigate the text, which Jones has refused to send.
On Twitter, Jones claimed that an arrest warrant was issued for a charge unrelated to the raid, saying there was no evidence that he sent the group’s text.
“They found no evidence of anything related to the order, so they invented something new to come after me for retaliation,” he said.
“However, the police found documents that I received / downloaded from state sources or something like that … at the moment it’s not clear what exactly they say I had that I shouldn’t have had, but an agent confirmed it has nothing to do with the object of the order, “Jones said. “The raid was based on a lie.”
The data scientist also said an agent told his lawyer that officials could add more charges if he spoke out against police.
The governor’s office and the Florida Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FDLE confirmed on NBC News Sunday that officers cooperated with Jones’ attorneys and would release more information after she was arrested.
Jones has done it filed a lawsuit against the state for the raid, calling it an act of illegal retaliation and an attempt to silence it, and has requested the return of the State computer equipment that authorities confiscated during the raid.
The data scientist has accused the state of misrepresenting the data, including only reporting the rate of new COVID-19 positive tests. After leaving the Florida Department of Health, the state stopped publishing the list of coronavirus deaths of medical examiners, which would sometimes be 10 percent higher than the state count, according to NBC News.