Jury finds Andrew Gillum not guilty of lying to FBI, deadlocks on other charges

A federal jury on Thursday found Andrew Gillum, a former Democratic nominee for governor of Florida and ex-mayor of Tallahassee, not guilty of lying to the FBI while deadlocking on 18 other counts, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial on those charges, attorneys said.

The single verdict came after a trial at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee that focused on allegations of corruption.

Gillum, at one point considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, lost the 2018 race for governor to Republican Ron DeSantis by fewer than 34,000 votes. He was indicted in 2022 on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and lying to federal investigators at various times between 2016 and 2019.

Prosecutors alleged that Gillum and his co-defendant, his longtime mentor Sharon Lettman-Hicks, took tens of thousands of dollars in what were supposed to be political donations and funneled them through Lettman-Hicks’ company into their own bank accounts. Prosecutors also claimed Gillum lied about his interactions with undercover FBI agents who posed as developers and paid for an outing Gillum took to New York. 

Earlier this week, CBS Miami reported that jurors told U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor they had reached agreement on one count, but were unlikely to reach agreement on the others.

The government is likely to retry the case, according to Gillum’s attorneys. Gillum has called the case politically motivated. In a statement to the press after the trial, he thanked the jurors and his legal team, and said the “system is in desperate need of reform.” 

“We live to fight another day,” Gillum said.

In early 2020, Gillum was found by police at a South Beach hotel, accompanied by a man who was suspected to have overdosed on drugs. The man was eventually stabilized. Gillum, in a statement, denied any allegations that he used drugs, and he faced no charges from the incident.