By Vanguard Staff
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The Hillsborough County (Florida) State Attorney suspended earlier this month by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his views on abortion announced this week he is going to appeal, and Fair and Just Prosecution accused the GOP governor of a “tyrannical authoritarian takeover.”
Fair and Just Prosecution Executive Director Miriam Krinsky released a statement supporting Andrew Warren, the state attorney suspended, saying, “The Florida Constitution sets very limited parameters under which a governor can suspend an elected official and what’s happening here is, he’s trying to overturn a free and fair election.
DeSantis announced he was suspending Warren for “neglect of duty” and “incompetence” as Hillsborough County’s prosecutor after Warren pledged not to prosecute those who seek or performed abortions or those who provide so-called gender-affirming treatments earlier this month,
“We applaud Andrew Warren for taking legal action to vindicate the interests of the voters in his community, who twice supported the commonsense reforms he campaigned on and has implemented over the past six years,” said Krinsky.
“Gov. DeSantis’ suspension of State Attorney Warren was nothing more than an authoritarian takeover of the office motivated by the governor’s own political agenda. He has failed to provide any specific examples of SA Warren ‘neglecting his duty’ because none exist,” Krinsky added.
“SA Warren was fired for being transparent with his community about the values and priorities that guide him as he exercises well-established prosecutorial discretion and for making decisions that other prosecutors in Florida implement every day. If these are grounds for removal, we’d be hard pressed to find any elected prosecutor whose job is safe from the governor’s tyrannical whims,” Krinsky argued.
Twice-elected, Warren told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day” Wednesday, DeSantis is “trying to throw out the votes of hundreds of thousands of Floridians. And he’s trying to substitute his judgment for that of the voters who elected me.”
Krinsky said, “This craven power-grab undermines the freedom of the people of Florida, which Governor DeSantis frequently claims to be committed to defending. We hope the court recognizes this abuse of power for what it is and acts immediately to vindicate the rights of the Hillsborough County community and reinstate Andrew Warren to his role as their duly elected State Attorney.” 
