Revealed: DeSantis aide used private email address to feed longtime pal advice for winning migrant flights contract

An aide to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used a private email account to help a former client obtain a contract with the state to conduct a controversial program to fly migrants to Democratic states.

Email records released just before Christmas by the governor's office suggest public safety czar Larry Keefe, using the alias "Clarice Starling," wrote some of the language Vertol Systems Company used in its bid proposal to fly migrants from Texas to other states, reported the Miami Herald.

Keefe represented Vertol for years in private practice before taking a job as a U.S. attorney in the Donald Trump administration and then accepting a DeSantis appointment last year as a top adviser whose responsibilities include fighting illegal immigration.

He communicated with Vertol CEO James Montgomery, a longtime friend, using a private Gmail address that showed his name as “Clarice Starling,” the heroine from the thriller "Silence of the Lambs," and including the phrase "Heat 19," which Keefe has said was a call sign given to him in private practice by a former U.S. Air Force Special Operations commander.

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Vertol's official proposal to the Florida Department of Transportation included eight paragraphs almost verbatim from Keefe's emails to Montgomery, and the state quickly approved that bid and the first flights started about a week later.