In typical Democratic fashion, Andrew Gillum, the man who once ran against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has now been accused of pocketing some of the cash from his campaign, as well as lying to FBI officials during his bid.
Before he became the Democratic nominee for Florida governor back in 2018, Gillum was the mayor of Tallahassee. He’s now come full circle as he’s found himself in the city’s courtroom, facing charges for dozens of crimes he’s committed during his gubernatorial run.
Gary Milligan, the Assistant US Attorney, explained that Gillum was still paying off a large mortgage at the time. He used the campaign money to support his extravagant lifestyle after he quit his six-figure job to run for office.
There’s little regarding politics in this case, as what Gillum did is nothing short of outright deceiving his donors and stealing money from his own gubernatorial campaign.
In fact, there’s little evidence he didn’t start the campaign solely to use it as a means of funding his lifestyle, which became endangered once he abandoned his post as mayor of Tallahassee.
The corrupt behavior seems to have started when Gillum first reached out to Mike Miller, an undercover FBI agent at the time. He was pretending to be a developer scouting projects for the state’s campaign donations.
Miller would then make several donations of his own to Gillum’s campaign. These were then funneled through P&P Communications, a public agency owned by one of the candidate’s supporters and close friends.
Milligan explained that Gillum himself had done no actual work for the agency. He used his brother, Marcus Gillum, to arrange the contributions to his campaign, or better said, his own wealth.
The defense did little to dispute Gillum’s involvement in the shady donations, arguing only his position at P&P Communications was legitimate and his brother’s involvement with the campaign doesn’t imply Gillum is guilty of anything.
Margot Moss, Gillum’s defense attorney, then went on a lengthy explanation about how Marcus solicited donations for his brother’s campaign of his own accord to impress his brother.
However, it’s not all about the money he’d stolen from the campaign. Gillum also lied to an FBI agent during his bid against DeSantis, yet another point that was denied by Gillum’s defense team.