Prosecutor Monique Worrell was suspended on Wednesday for “neglecting her duty to faithfully prosecute crime in her jurisdiction,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference.

“Prosecutors have a duty to faithfully enforce the law,” the governor said.

The governor, who is also a Republican presidential candidate, said Worell was guilty of avoiding “minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes…and drug trafficking offenses.”

He said that she allowed “juvenile offenders to avoid serious charges and incarceration altogether” and “limiting charges for child pornography.”

“It is my duty as Governor to ensure that the laws enacted by our duly elected Legislature are followed,” the governor said.

“The people of Central Florida deserve to have a State Attorney who will seek justice in accordance with the law instead of allowing violent criminals to roam the streets and find new victims,” he said.

“I have no doubt that today’s decision is not only consistent with the constitution and laws of Florida and that we have a right to act. I know with today’s decision we had a duty to act, to protect the public from this dereliction of duty,” he said.

“The Orlando-area prosecutor, who received a boost in the Democratic primary in 2020 by groups linked to liberal billionaire George Soros, had been discussed as a potential target for suspension for months. Despite the boost in 2020, Worrell has distanced herself from the billionaire, saying at the time she had never met him and that she learned of the boost from groups linked to him via news reports,” The Washington Examiner reported.

But Worell was furious with the decision and tore into the governor at her own press conference.

“This is an outrage […] There used to be a very high standard for the removal of elected officials,” she said.

“Under this tyranny, elected officials can be removed simply for political purposes,” she said.

“Under this tyranny, elected officials can be removed simply for political purposes, and by a whim of the governor, and no matter how you feel about me you should not be OK with that. This is simply a smokescreen for DeSantis’ failing and disastrous presidential campaign,” the suspended prosecutor said.

“He needed to get back in the media in some positive way that would be red meat for his base. And he will have accomplished that today. He will be in the news nationally and internationally for the individual who has singlehandedly destroyed democracy in the state of Florida,” she said.

“For the people who are celebrating the fact that I’m removed, if there is any humanity in you at all, you should know that this is bigger than just me. There is a family who is being harmed today because of political attacks. This is a political hitjob. It is nothing less than that. And it should be seen for exactly what it is,” she said.

A reporter questioned her on the claim that she dismissed more cases than many of her peers.

“These are all part of the political narrative. I don’t know that there’s any factual basis towards that. But let’s talk about why cases get dismissed, right? We are making sure that when cases are brought that they are brought within the context of the law. So I’m not going to feed into those political narratives, because we know that the governor has been searching for a reason. We saw a manufactured Juvenile justice report that showed that I lead the state in dismissal of Juvenile justice cases. You have to ask yourself, this report has never before been created, why all of a sudden now? Because it was manufactured by an agency that’s run by the governor. So they can create the facts so that they can support their narrative, but that doesn’t mean that those things are true,” she said.

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