An “amazingly skilled legal team” — not politics or family connections — helped Carolina Amesty evade a federal indictment after facing accusations of pandemic relief fraud, the former Republican lawmaker said over the weekend in a statement sent through a media representative for her counsel, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Prosecutors for the Middle District of Florida, headed by a U.S. Attorney appointed by Bondi, said last week they were no longer pursuing their case against Amesty , who was accused of fraudulently obtaining $122,000 in COVID-19 relief funds through a foundation bearing her name and a car dealership that federal investigators don’t think was licensed to operate.

Onlookers said in a story published Sunday by the Orlando Sentinel that Amesty, a 30-ye

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