Former COVID-19 data scientist for the state of Florida, Rebekah Jones says she’s turning herself in to police Sunday after a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Jones said via Twitter that the warrant did not come from evidence the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had sought during the search of her home in December.
BREAKING: FDLE found no evidence of a message sent last Nov. to DOH staff telling them to ‘speak out’ on any of the devices they took – the entire basis for the raid on my home in Dec. The warrant was based on a lie. We argued this in court just last week. This should be victory.
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) January 16, 2021
She said she would be turning herself to police on Sunday via Twitter:
… was issued the day after a Tallahassee judge told police that if they’re not investigating a crime, they had to return my equipment. They didn’t find proof of anything related to the warrant, so they invented something new to come after me for in retaliation.
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) January 16, 2021
To protect my family from continued police violence, and to show that I’m ready to fight whatever they throw at me, I’m turning myself into police in Florida Sunday night. The Governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out.
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) January 16, 2021
Jones has drawn national attention because of her accusations that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has manipulated data about the COVID-19 pandemic. She was fired last year and set up a competing COVID-19 online dashboard to display data about the virus.
The FDLE conducted the search at Jones’ house on Dec. 7 after an investigation allegedly linked her home address to a Nov. 10 message sent on an internal Department of Health multi-user account.