The woman who says she helped designed Florida's COVID-19 dashboard and was later fired faces an open criminal investigation for sexual cyber-harassment and cyberstalking.
Rebekah Jones claimed she was removed from her position because she was ordered to censor some data, but refused to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen."
Governor Ron DeSantis said Jones was let go for insubordination and reiterated the stance on Wednesday, with Vice President Mike Pence at his side in Orlando. He said she didn't listen to her superiors and it was discovered that she's under active criminal charges for cyber stalking and cyber sexual harassment.
A Tallahassee man reported to police last year that Jones posted a website and included nude photos of him, sharing them with his place of employment and family members.
As for the dashboard, DeSantis says Jones is not a scientist and not the chief architect of the web portal. He says she was putting data on the dashboard which scientists deemed not valid.
The governor also took on the media for false reporting when it comes to how well Florida has fared during the pandemic.
DeSantis defended the dashboard, saying the data is "available" and "transparent." He said any insinuation otherwise is "just typical partisan narrative trying to be spun."
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