The Republican Party filed its lawsuit late Friday, naming former state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat campaigning against Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. The ads refer to the grand jury report, which examined how $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was routed to a political committee led by Uthmeier, then Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff.

Separately, Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal ordered people named in the report to explain within five days why briefs, motions and other filings in two cases should not be made public. The orders came Monday and Tuesday. The court also denied a petition from some of those named seeking to prohibit publication of the report; the petition and the order denying it are not publicly available.

The grand jury finalized its report in January. It said the $10 million had been “misappropriated,” but no one could be indicted. The funds originated in a $67 million settlement with Centene over Medicaid overpayments. The Hope Florida Foundation received the money, then gave it to two nonprofits, which transferred it to Uthmeier’s political committee. The committee opposed 2024 ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana and establish a constitutional right to abortion. Both measures failed.

The appeals court later ruled that the grand jury was legally wrong, concluding that the settlement funds were not state money because the settlement was completed before legal action began. The court ordered the report expunged on Aug. 25, though the ruling was initially kept from public view. The unredacted report was published within a day of that decision.

Because there was no indictment, state law allows the report to be sealed. People named in it had sought to block publication, and a trial court allowed a redacted version to become public before the matter went to the appeals court.

The leak has prompted a separate inquiry into how the report became public. The appeals court said it did not receive the unredacted report until Sept. 9. On Oct. 9, it ordered Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell, who oversaw the grand jury proceedings, to explain why a special master should not investigate the leak, why he should not be sanctioned for suggesting court staff may have leaked the report, and why he should not be referred to the Florida Bar. Campbell filed a response exceeding 200 pages on Oct. 13, but it remains sealed.

The court later asked Campbell to identify which parts of his response should be redacted. Its latest orders put the public status of filings in the related cases back in focus as the legal dispute over the report and its use in political advertising continues.