{"id":1917538,"date":"2023-04-21T05:10:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T09:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/andrew-gillum-on-trial-for-fraud-lying-to-fbi-during-campaign-against-ron-desantis\/"},"modified":"2023-04-21T05:15:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T09:15:04","slug":"andrew-gillum-on-trial-for-fraud-lying-to-fbi-during-campaign-against-ron-desantis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/andrew-gillum-on-trial-for-fraud-lying-to-fbi-during-campaign-against-ron-desantis\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Gillum on Trial for Fraud, Lying to FBI During Campaign Against Ron DeSantis"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fandrew-gillum-on-trial-for-fraud-lying-to-fbi-during-campaign-against-ron-desantis%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1917538&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0420\/1f1288f7-7ca9-46cf-947f-92ac4f80bf00\/audio.mp3?length=3805965&#038;duration=317\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Gillum, who was Tallahassee\u2019s 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\u00a0Tallahassee. Prosecutors argued that during his run for governor, he committed fraud by using campaign funds to make various purchases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis case is not about politics,\u201d assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Milligan said, according to reports from the trial. \u201cThis case is about deceiving donors [and] stealing from his own campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gillum, 43, is accused of accepting about $57,000 in political contributions that were secretly funneled through a co-defendant\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>She ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for the state House.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cHamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gillum is accused of falsely telling the FBI later that he never received anything from these undercover \u201cdevelopers\u201d and that his brother provided the Broadway ticket.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2674744\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2018\/09\/30\/GettyImages-1039468062-1200x801.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Democratic Florida gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum speaks at a campaign rally in Miami, Fla., on Sept. 24, 2018. (Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<h2>Start of Investigation<\/h2>\n<p>The FBI began an investigation into\u00a0P&#038;P Communications, a firm founded by Lettman-Hicks, after the agency saw that Gillum was being paid \u201clarge amounts of money\u201d by the company, which hired him in 2017 as he was probing a bid for governor. Milligan said that P&#038;P defrauded several nonprofits by soliciting about $242,500 in campaign donations and sending the money to her firm to pay Gillum, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tallahassee.com\/story\/news\/local\/fbi\/2023\/04\/18\/andrew-gillum-corruption-trial-opening-arguments-fbi-agent-testifies\/70124529007\/\">Tallahassee Democrat<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Gillum had a motive for this,\u201d Milligan told the court on April 18, adding that the case isn\u2019t about whether Gillum was a good mayor or not. \u201cHe needed the money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gillum and Lettman-Hicks have pleaded not guilty. Gillum said after he was indicted that he had \u201ca target on my back\u201d since he was the state capital\u2019s mayor, and predicted he will be vindicated.<\/p>\n<p>Margot Moss, a Miami-based attorney representing Gillum, opened her arguments by showing Gillum, his wife, and their three children together in photos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis case is about what happens when you put a target on someone\u2019s back,\u201d she said, echoing Gillum\u2019s previous statements, according to the newspaper. \u201cAnd then they twist and they force the evidence in the direction of the targets. But this is not what our justice system is about.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2718173\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2018\/11\/17\/Democrat-Gillum-concedes-Florida-governors-race-congratulates-DeSantis-1200x846.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> 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)<\/figure>\n<p>Gillum\u2019s salary and the payments he received from P&#038;P were legitimate, Moss argued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is Andrew Gillum is innocent. That\u2019s why he has chosen to go to trial to say loud and clear \u2018I am not guilty,\u2019\u201d Moss told the jurors.<\/p>\n<p>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, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtxl.com\/news\/local-news\/fbi-agent-testifies-at-andrew-gillum-trial\">WTXL<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>In one recording that was played in court, Andrew\u2019s brother, Marcus Gillum, claims Andrew Gillum is aware of the scheme and then asks Miller\u00a0for anywhere between $25,000 to $75,000 in exchange <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s 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\u00a0Tallahassee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":1917539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[5057,4087,4980,5591,6909,11807,6943,8679,4853],"class_list":["post-1917538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-andrew","tag-campaign","tag-desantis","tag-fbi","tag-fraud","tag-gillum","tag-lying","tag-ron","tag-trial"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}