After having lost a neck and neck election in 2018 to Governor Ron DeSantis before being discovered knocked out in a motel with drugs and a male escort, Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum is now expected to stand trial for a series of federal charges such as fraud and lying to the FBI.
Just this past week, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor issued a statement that declined to toss out the case slated against Gillum, expressing that his claims that the charges were only against him because he was black entirely “meritless.”
Along with an associate, Gillum was indicted earlier this past year with charges such as conspiracy, wire fraud, and making false statements to FBI agents. The prosecution team has stated that the former mayor of Tallahassee utilized donations from his campaign to fund personal endeavors throughout his failed race for the gubernatorial office.
As discovered in the federal indictment that was officially unsealed back in June in the Northern District of Florida, Gillum along with relations executive Sharon Lettman-Hicks allegedly managed to gather hundreds of thousands of dollars slated for campaigns funds in 2017 and then diverted said funds into personal accounts for their own use. Lettman-Hicks allegedly marked Gillum as someone who worked at her firm and later altered this to read as an “independent contractor” in order to issue the man a salary while he attempted the run for the governor’s office.
FBI agents undercover as developers met with Gillum while he held the office of Mayor for Tallahassee and once again throughout his campaign for governor, as explained by the prosecution team. His team attempted to secure donations form the group of undercover agents, allegedly stating that they not be marked as political contributions.
In the wake of DeSantis’ victory over Gillum, the democrat was labeled as a rising star within Democratic politics and was brought on with CNN as an analyst. However, back in March 2020, he was discovered passed out and intoxicated inside of a hotel room with a pair of men, one of which was a male escort, and coious amounts of methamphetamine. He was sent to rehab and later stated that he was in fact bisexual in a television interview.
“I was in Miami last night for a wedding celebration when first responders were called to assist one of my friends,” stated Gillum in a release after the incident. “While I had too much to drink, I want to be clear that I have never used methamphetamines. I apologize to the people of Florida for the distraction this has caused our movement.”
