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Andrew Gillum heads to trial
Jordan Bowen reports.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - He almost became Florida's governor, but now, former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is preparing to go to trial Monday for federal corruption charges. He's accused of defrauding campaign donors and lying to the FBI.
In 2018, Gillum nearly defeated former congressman Ron DeSantis in the Florida gubernatorial race losing by fewer than 34,000 votes.
Now, five years later, Gillum faces 17 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of lying to the FBI.
Prosecutors allege Gillum and his longtime advisor now co-defendant Sharon Lettman-Hicks, defrauded campaign mega-donors by soliciting money from organizations that thought they were donating to legitimate political causes.
File of Andrew Gillum.
Instead, the feds say the day after Gillum lost the governor's race in 2018 his campaign sent $60,000 in campaign donations to Lettman-Hicks' communications company P&P Communications to pay for expenses related to "Get Out The Vote" efforts. Then, prosecutors say Lettman-Hicks made four $5,000 transfers called "bonuses" to Gillum's personal bank account.
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According to the federal indictment, Gillum is accused of pocketing a total of nearly $57,000 in campaign donations.
Gillum is accused of pocketing a total of nearly $57,000 in campaign donations.
He's denied all allegations and calls the indictment politically motivated.
"There’s been a target on my back ever since I was the mayor of Tallahassee," Gillum said shortly after being indicted. "They found nothing then, and I have full confidence that my legal team will prove my innocence now."
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Meanwhile, the charge accusing Gillum of lying to FBI agents stems back to 2016 when prosecutors say undercover FBI agents posing as real-estate developers paid for part of a trip Gillum and his brother took to New York City.
Gillum's longtime advisor now co-defendant Sharon Lettman-Hicks,
According to the indictment, the agents paid for his food and drinks, a boat ride around the harbor, his hotel room at the Millennium Hilton hotel and a ticket to see Hamilton.
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In 2017, Gillum voluntarily sat down with FBI agents and denied ever receiving gifts from the supposed "developers".
File of Andrew Gillum.
As for the trial, jury selection begins Monday in federal court in Tallahassee.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.