TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Former city of Tallahassee mayor and Florida Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum is set to go to trial Monday in a federal court.
Gillum is facing 19 federal charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy.
Jury members will be selected in the morning and opening statements will follow later in the afternoon.
This past Thursday, attorneys met with U.S. Northern District of Florida court Judge Allen Winsor for a hearing to prepare.
Gillum and Sharon Janet Lettman-Hicks were formally charged by a grand jury last June.
The indictment alleges that between 2016 and 2019, Gillum and Lettman-Hicks conspired to commit wire fraud, by unlawfully soliciting and obtaining funds from various entities and individuals through false and fraudulent promises and representations that the funds would be used for a legitimate purpose.
The indictment further alleges the defendants used third parties to divert a portion of those funds to P&P Communications, a company owned by Lettman-Hicks, who then fraudulently provided the funds, disguised as payroll payments, to Gillum for his personal use.
A motion by Gillum to dismiss the charges was denied by Winsor in December.
Gillum was elected mayor of Tallahassee in 2014 for a four-year term and in 2018, he was the Democratic nominee for Florida governor, but lost to current Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis by a small margin of 0.4 percent during that election.
At the time of the indictment, Lettman-Hicks was a 2022 Democratic candidate for the Florida House of Representatives District 8 seat.
