Andrew Gillum acquitted of lying to the FBI

04 May 2023

Former Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was acquitted by a federal jury of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Thursday, The Daily Beast reports.

Gillum, who lost the gubernatorial election to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2018, and his campaign strategist and mentor, Sharon Lettman-Hicks, were accused of stealing "thousands raised by Gillum's campaign for governor and instead routing it to their own bank accounts through a company owned by Lettman-Hicks."

The former Tallahassee mayor's wife, R. Jai Gillum, took to her husband's Twitter last month to write, "Our family is facing an unimaginable challenge. We're fighting against a broken system that seeks to destroy our lives in the name of politics & corruption. We need your help."

After nine days on trial, according to The Daily Beast, "the presiding judge issued an 'Allen charge' to jurors—a judicial maneuver to prevent hung juries."

The charge read, "The trial has been expensive in time, effort, money and emotional strain to both the defense and prosecution. If you fail to agree on a verdict, the case will be left open and may have to be tried again. Another trial would increase the cost to both sides, and there is no reason to believe that the case can be tried again by either side any better or more exhaustively than it has been tried before you."

The Daily Beast reports:

Among witnesses the defense called was former state Rep. Alan Williams, who worked on Gillum's campaign but was on the payroll of the Florida Democratic Party. He testified that a $60,000 payment from the campaign to Lettman-Hicks' company, P&P Communications, was a reasonable price to pay for the strategist’s work on the campaign.

Williams, now a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, testified that Gillum would never steal—especially money donated by supporters.

Following the verdict, according to The New York Times, Gillum said, "They've quite literally tried to take everything from us. The beauty is that in our system, the powers that be don't always get to decide. Everyday people like you and me sometimes get our swing at the ball. And today, the jury took it."

The Times reports:

The F.B.I. began investigating Tallahassee City Hall in 2015, a year after Mr. Gillum took office, sending undercover agents to pose as real estate developers. The next year, Mr. Gillum spent time in New York with the undercover agents, where among other things they went to see the Broadway musical 'Hamilton.'

The trip became an issue in the 2018 campaign for governor because Mr. Gillum had not disclosed the show ticket or other gifts at the time as required by state law. In 2019, he paid a $5,000 fine to settle the resulting Florida ethics case.

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required). The New York Times' report is here (subscription required).

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