Jacksonville, Fl — Andrew Gillum, a former mayor of Tallahassee who narrowly lost the 2018 Florida governor’s race to Ron DeSantis, is set for trial starting today.
A 21-count indictment was announced shortly after Gillum’s arrest by Jason R. Coody, a U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida last June.
Gillum and his political adviser, Sharon Janet Lettman-Hicks, are charged with 19 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Gillum is also facing one count of making false statements to the FBI. The indictment accuses Gillum, a Democrat, of lying to the agency about a 2016 trip to New York City, which hampered his efforts in the 2016 gubernatorial campaign.
The indictment confirmed that undercover agents, posing as business people seeking to procure government contracts in Tallahassee, paid for Gillum’s lodging at the Millennium Hilton hotel, his food and drinks, a boat ride around New York Harbor and a ticket to the Broadway show “Hamilton,” according to the Miami Herald.
The 19 counts of wire fraud and the one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud each have a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, the newspaper reported. The false statement indictment against Gillum carries a maximum of five years in prison.
Gillum came within 34,000 votes of defeating DeSantis in the 2018 race for Florida governor. That would have made him the state’s first Black governor, but personal struggles plagued him after his defeat.
In 2020, the police in Miami Beach found him in a hotel where another man was suffering from a possible drug overdose, according to the newspaper.
Police said Gillum was intoxicated and a bag of crystal meth was found inside the motel room, WJAX reported. Gillum admitted he was drunk but said he did not use the drugs, according to the television station. Gillum later announced he was entering a rehab center, according to WJAX.
