The documentary that DeSantis did not want you to see: How Vice pulled probe into claims presidential hopeful approved force-feeding and torture while at Guantanamo and how ‘Navy girls would go crazy over him’

Vice allegedly pulled a documentary investigating claims that Ron DeSantis allowed force-feeding while he worked at Guantanamo Bay for fear the governor would retaliate.

The film — dubbed “The Guantanamo Candidate” — explored claims that while DeSantis served as Navy legal counsel in 2006, he advised military officials about force-feeding prisoners who had been on hunger strike.

The documentary was intended to be released on May 28 as part of a Vice docuseries airing on Showtime, but it was reportedly pulled on May 25, a day after DeSantis announced he was running for president.

It also came just weeks after Vice, once praised for its daring and disruptive journalism, filed for bankruptcy in mid-May.

The controversial practice of force-feeding was declared a form of torture by the United Nations in February 2006, just a month before DeSantis arrived at Guantanamo and served there for a year.

A script of the 30 minute movie, seen by the Daily Beastindicates that it was organized by deputy journalist Seb Walker, who conducted multiple interviews with people who were in Guantanamo Bay at the time.

The first was an inmate who has previously recounted how DeSantis watched and laughed as he was force-fed through a tube in his nose during a hunger strike.

DeSantis was hesitant to discuss the allegations at length, but was famously prompted by Walker at a press conference in Jerusalem in April.

The governor vehemently denied the claims and challenged the prisoner’s ability to remember his face.

That’s all BS. Totally BS,” he said.

“Do you really believe that’s credible? This is 2006. I’m a non-commissioned officer. Do you really think they would have kept me from Adam?’ he responded to Walker.

“Of course not, they’re just trying to get in the news because they know people like you will consume it because it fits your predetermined story that you’re trying to distort.” Focus on the facts and stop worrying about the story,” he said.

Also interviewed for the documentary, according to the transcript, was a prison guard, Sergeant Joe Hickman.

Hickman has claimed that three hunger strike leaders were killed in prison by US officials, who claimed they died as a result of a suicide pact. According to the transcript, Hickman suggested in the film that DeSantis would not have had the necessary authority to be involved in that incident.

He also described DeSantis as “extremely handsome” and said “Navy girls would go crazy for him,” according to the transcript.

“They weren’t going to give someone that responsibility,” Hickman said regarding the possibility of his involvement in the deaths of the three inmates.

That contrasts with claims made by DeSantis’ then-commander, Captain Patrick McCarthy, who told the Washington Post that DeSantis was indeed involved in that alleged incident.

“He would have been one of the people I sent to facilitate the investigation,” McCarthy told the Post. According to Vice’s transcript, he declined to be interviewed for the film.

A source with direct knowledge told the Daily Beast that the documentary was shelved on May 25, just four days before the documentary aired and after promotional materials were shared.

The episode’s description read, “Seb Walker investigates allegations from former Guantanamo Bay detainees that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis witnessed acts condemned by the United Nations as torture during his former service at the controversial detention camp as a Navy JAG officer.”

One person who has knowledge of the decision Semafor said that Showtime’s Washington lobbyist, DeDe Lea, had expressed concern about the Guantanamo movie.

The prisoner interviewed for the film was Mansoor Adayfi, according to the transcript.

He wrote a now-famous op-ed for Al-Jazeera in April, detailing his experience of being force-fed and claiming that DeSantis was watching and smiling.

Adayfi described in the piece how he was “forcefully strapped into the chair, so tight I couldn’t move.”

“A nurse shoved a thick tube up my nose and down my throat. My nose was bleeding and the pain was so bad I thought my head was going to explode. The nurse wouldn’t stop. Instead, he started pouring Sure into a feeding bag attached to the tube,” he added.

“As I tried to break free, I saw DeSantis’ handsome face among the crowd on the other side of the chain link. He saw how I struggled. He smiled and laughed with other officers as I screamed in pain.”

Adayfi further claimed that he was left strapped to the chair overnight after being force-fed and that they restarted the process the next morning.

“Since I threw up, they gave me another case. This time they mixed laxatives in the bag. The mixture of Insure and laxatives completely wrecked my gut after going without solid food for over nine months. They left me strapped to that chair all night, smeared with my own feces and vomit,” Adayfi wrote.

The Daily Breast wrote to Showtime about the decision to cancel the documentary and got the same response as The Hollywood Reporter, which first told the story.

The Showtime spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on scheduling decisions,” and didn’t answer when asked if the DeSantis office was in talks with the network about the documentary.

The Beast also wrote to the DeSantis campaign about the claims that he had seen force feedings and was directed to the relevant part of the press conference in Jerusalem.

It did not address questions of collusion with Showtime.