Court documents added a new dimension to Disney’s fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as testimony exposed legal counsel working both sides and a willingness to delay growth.
A large part of DeSantis earning the moniker America’s Governor stemmed from his willingness to take on the spirit of the age and make his state the place “where woke goes to die.” Now, years after Disney chose to oppose the Parental Rights in Education Act in favor of alphabet activism, Florida Politics detailed how some 700 pages worth of court documents revealed bigwigs at the House of Mouse “felt their future theme park expansions were in jeopardy…”
According to the report, Disney hired the law firm Holtzman Vogel — which had “performed millions of dollars of work for the DeSantis administration” — in an effort to win the fight over the now-defunct Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID).
What’s more, Florida Politics detailed how, “Holtzman Vogel did not want anyone to know it was helping Disney for fear of DeSantis’ retribution, one Disney lawyer said under oath.”
“Revealing their side of the story for the first time, Disney executives felt their future theme park expansions were in jeopardy at the height of the company’s battle with DeSantis and the Florida GOP,” the court documents further revealed.
Reporting that “Disney feared losing control of the park’s expansion,” Florida Politics cited Disney scholar Richard Fogleson as it detailed how, “In the depositions, Disney executives said almost nothing about DeSantis personally, or about defending First Amendment rights or the LGBTQ+ community,” while he said, “What was really more important to the company was the right to control their future development, considering that two-thirds of the property by the Disney company here in Orlando is still undeveloped.”
At the time when the governor put an end to Disney’s self-governance via the RCID, replacing it with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD), executives were said to have opted to slow the expansion of the Magic Kingdom to avoid working with the new board appointed by DeSantis after failing to ram through a development plan at the last minute.
The court documents further revealed that John McGowan, the chief counsel of Walt Disney World Resort’s legal department, had been “orchestrating the development deal” aimed to be completed before the CFTOD board could be appointed, and the attorney had his name removed from the agreement over the optics, as he’d been working for both Disney and RCID.
“My recollection,” he testified, “is that putting my name on the document would … raise the (attention) of the next board and that they would use it as a false narrative that it was something shoved down the district’s throat.”
When Holtzman Vogel was brought up, McGowan was described as covering his face before an attorney asked him to put his hands down. “They were terribly afraid that if the Governor learned that they were helping Disney, the Governor would retaliate against them and take the work away from them.”
McGowan also suggested that Chief Deputy General Counsel Ray Treadwell of DeSantis’ office was aware of what Disney was up to the whole time.
“It’s my understanding he was aware of the existence of these documents before they were approved by the board,” he testified, supporting the claim as something Disney lobbyist Adam Babington had told him.
The legal battle between Disney and DeSantis came to a close in March 2024 when the company dropped its lawsuit fighting for the Development Agreement to be deemed legitimate.
Gov. DeSantis wins – Disney drops lawsuit, concedes last-minute power grab null and void https://t.co/PXyg0yDs6Z via @americanwire_
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) March 27, 2024
“These matters are in the past, and our development plans are moving full speed ahead with the support of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District,” Disney said in a statement to Florida Politics as, at the time of the legal dispute, the theme park hadn’t publicly announced its plans for a Villains Land or “Cars” ride, and bond efforts for a road project were sidelined by the change in boards. “We have more projects underway at Walt Disney World than at any other point in our history, creating jobs and positive economic impact for Floridians.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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