A Florida cop advised one of the people arrested in DeSantis' voter fraud crackdown how to defend himself against the charges, body camera footage shows

• A Florida cop gave advice to a man he arrested in Gov. Ron DeSantis' voter fraud crackdown.
• Police body cam footage obtained by the Tampa Bay Times shows cops appearing sympathetic toward those they were arresting.

Florida police officers appeared sympathetic while arresting several people during Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' voter fraud crackdown and even advised one man on how to defend himself against charges, according to police body camera footage obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

The Tampa Bay Times published the August 18 footage on Tuesday, showing police arresting three people accused of voter fraud in connection to investigations from DeSantis' new Office of Election Crimes and Security.

The arrests tie back to a 2018 state constitutional amendment that gave felons — except anyone convicted of murder or a felony sex offense — the right to vote. The 2018 law caused widespread confusion over who can vote, and there's a lack of clarity on voter registration forms, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The August 18 arrests happened just hours before DeSantis held a press conference announcing that 20 people had been charged with voter fraud connected to the 2020 presidential election. Those arrested, who had all received voter registration cards, are now facing up to five years in prison, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Footage from the arrests shows confusion among the cops and the people being arrested.

At one point in the video footage, a police officer can be seen advising Nathan Hart on how he could defend himself against charges.

Hart, who appeared confused, was told by cops that he couldn't vote and that, "unfortunately," there was a warrant out for his arrest.

"I guess you're not allowed to vote," the officer told Hart.

"Well, no. But no one ever really explained all that much to me," Hart said as police put him in handcuffs.

Hart told police that when he went to get a new driver's license, a Department of Motor Vehicles employee said that even though he was a convicted felon, he was allowed to vote again because he was no longer on probation.

He said a DMV worker prompted him to fill out a voter registration form and told him that if he's allowed to vote, they'll give him a voter card. If he's not, he wouldn't receive one.

"There's your defense," the cop responded. "Sounds like a loophole to me."

The cop told Hart that despite receiving a voter registration card, he's not allowed to vote because he's a convicted sex offender.

The video showed police arresting two others — one man, identified by the Times as Tony Patterson, and one woman, identified as Romona Oliver — who both appeared confused about why they were being placed in handcuffs.

Oliver told the officers that when she got out of jail, she was told she was eligible to vote again because "I had done my time."

Patterson asked the cops, "why are you all doing this now and this happened years ago?"

The cops told all three people featured in the video that the warrants had come in the day before though they were unsure why it was happening now.

"This here is crazy," Patterson said. "Why would you all let me vote if I wasn't able to vote?"

DeSantis did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.