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A Florida data scientist who accused the state of manipulating coronavirus data announced she would surrender on Sunday evening after authorities issued an arrest warrant.
Rebekah Jones, one of the data scientists who helped create Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard, said on Twitter that she would surrender to authorities about a month after law enforcement raided her home.
“To protect my family from the continued police violence and to show that I’m ready to fight whatever they throw at me, I turn into police in Florida on Sunday night,” Jones tweeted. “The governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out.
To protect my family from continued police violence and to show that I am ready to fight anything they throw at me, I turn into police in Florida on 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 claimed she was fired in May because she refused to ‘manually change the data’ to support the case for lifting coronavirus restrictions, but a government spokeswoman . Ron DeSantisRon DeSantis Florida Republicans close ranks with Trump after Capitol siege Once the candidate slam-dunked, Trump’s aspirations for 2024 have already been toasted after the Chaos State of the Capitol and federal officials argue vaccine deployment, delay PLUS (R) accused Jones in May of “displaying repeated insubordination” and “gross disrespect”.
Police allege they used a Ministry of Health communications platform to send a text on November 10 telling others it was “time to speak before another 17,000 people died.” Law enforcement acted on a search warrant on Dec. 7 to investigate the text, which Jones denied sending.
On TwitterJones claimed that an arrest warrant had been issued on a charge unrelated to the raid, saying there was no evidence she sent the group’s text.
“They couldn’t find any proof of anything related to the warrant, so they invented something new to come after me in retaliation,” she said.
“However, the police found documents that I received / downloaded from sources in the state, or something like that… it’s not clear at this point what exactly they are saying that I had that I shouldn’t have had, but an officer confirmed it had nothing to do with the subject of the warrant, ”Jones said. “The raid was based on a lie.”
The data scientist also said an agent had told her lawyer authorities could add more charges if she reported the police.
The governor’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FDLE confirmed to NBC News on Sunday that agents were cooperating with Jones’ attorneys and would release more information after his detention.
Jones has filed a complaint against the state for the raid, calling this an illegal act of retaliation and an attempt to silence her, and demanded the return of the state computer equipment that the authorities seized during the raid.
The data scientist accused the state of distorting the data, including only reporting the rate of new positive COVID-19 tests. After leaving the Florida Department of Health, the state stopped publishing the coronavirus death list to medical examiners, which has at times been 10% more than the state’s count, according to NBC News.
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