Andrew Gillum on Trial for Fraud, Lying to FBI During Campaign Against Ron DeSantis

The former rising Democrat star faces 17 criminal counts

Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks during a CNN debate against Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, on Oct. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

A former candidate for Florida governor, Andrew Gillum, faces 17 counts of fraud and lying to the FBI during his 2018 campaign against now-Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Gillum, who was Tallahassee’s mayor before he ran for governor and was considered a rising star within the Democrat Party, is now on trial in a federal court in Tallahassee. Prosecutors argued that during his run for governor, he committed fraud by using campaign funds to make various purchases.

“This case is not about politics,” assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Milligan said, according to reports from the trial. “This case is about deceiving donors [and] stealing from his own campaign.”

Gillum, 43, is accused of accepting about $57,000 in political contributions that were secretly funneled through a co-defendant’s company to his personal accounts. The co-defendant is Sharon Lettman-Hicks, a longtime political adviser to Gillum and former executive with the People for the American Way Foundation, a progressive group.

She ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for the state House.

Prosecutors also say Gillum lied about his interactions with undercover FBI agents posing as developers who paid for a 2016 trip he and his brother took to New York, which included a ticket to the hit Broadway show “Hamilton.”

Gillum is accused of falsely telling the FBI later that he never received anything from these undercover “developers” and that his brother provided the Broadway ticket.

Democratic Florida gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum speaks at a campaign rally in Miami, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Start of Investigation

The FBI began an investigation into P&P Communications, a firm founded by Lettman-Hicks, after the agency saw that Gillum was being paid “large amounts of money” by the company, which hired him in 2017 as he was probing a bid for governor. Milligan said that P&P defrauded several nonprofits by soliciting about $242,500 in campaign donations and sending the money to her firm to pay Gillum, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

“Mr. Gillum had a motive for this,” Milligan told the court on April 18, adding that the case isn’t about whether Gillum was a good mayor or not. “He needed the money.”

Gillum and Lettman-Hicks have pleaded not guilty. Gillum said after he was indicted that he had “a target on my back” since he was the state capital’s mayor, and predicted he will be vindicated.

Margot Moss, a Miami-based attorney representing Gillum, opened her arguments by showing Gillum, his wife, and their three children together in photos.

“This case is about what happens when you put a target on someone’s back,” she said, echoing Gillum’s previous statements, according to the newspaper. “And then they twist and they force the evidence in the direction of the targets. But this is not what our justice system is about.”

Then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey react after appearing at his midterm election night party in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 6, 2018. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Gillum’s salary and the payments he received from P&P were legitimate, Moss argued.

“The truth is Andrew Gillum is innocent. That’s why he has chosen to go to trial to say loud and clear ‘I am not guilty,’” Moss told the jurors.

But an undercover FBI agent, Mike Miller, testified to the court that he posed as a real estate developer seeking help with projects in exchange for cash, WTXL reported.

In one recording that was played in court, Andrew’s brother, Marcus Gillum, claims Andrew Gillum is aware of the scheme and then asks Miller for anywhere between $25,000 to $75,000 in exchange for possible development projects

In 2020, two years after losing to DeSantis, Gillum was discovered inside a Miami Beach hotel room with a male who had allegedly overdosed on drugs. Authorities said Gillum was too far under the influence to describe what had happened in the hotel room.

Later, Gillum confirmed he was seeking treatment for depression and alcohol abuse. He was never charged with a crime in connection to the incident, although it likely torpedoed his political future.

Charges

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a 2022 news release that between 2016 and 2019, Gillum and Lettman-Hicks conspired to commit wire fraud “by unlawfully soliciting and obtaining funds from various entities and individuals through false and fraudulent promises and representations that the funds would be used for a legitimate purpose.”

Prosecutors further allege that the defendants used third parties to divert some of the funds to a company owned by Lettman-Hicks, which she fraudulently “disguised as payroll payments” to Gillum for his personal use.

Initially, both defendants were charged with 19 counts of wire fraud, although Gillum now only faces 17 counts. Gillum was also charged with making false statements to FBI agents, the DOJ said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.