A federal grand jury in Tallahassee handed up a new, superseding indictment in the Andrew Gillum public corruption, dropping a couple of wire fraud counts against him and his co-defendant in the process.
The new indictment ― which surfaced Tuesday morning, less than a week before his trial is set to begin ― includes a total of 19 counts, down two from the original indictment. It does not include any new defendants.
It’s not yet certain whether the new indictment will lead to a delay in the trial of Gillum and co-defendant Sharon Lettman-Hicks. Defense lawyers mentioned last week the possibility of asking for a continuance if a new indictment came out. However, Mutaqee Akbar, a Tallahassee attorney representing Lettman-Hicks, said there are no immediate plans to seek a new trial date.
“I expect us to keep moving forward,” Akbar said.
Gillum and Lettman-Hicks, his longtime mentor, were indicted last June on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud for allegedly routing campaign donations to themselves from February 2016 through late May 2020 through Lettman-Hicks’ company, P&P Communications.
That period overlaps with Gillum’s term as mayor and his 2018 campaign for Florida governor, when he won the Democratic primary in an upset but lost the general election to Ron DeSantis. Gillum served on the City Commission from 2003 until late 2018, the last four years as mayor. He also faces a charge of lying to the FBI.
The two counts that won’t go before jurors involve a $250,000 donation from a major Gillum donor to his Forward Florida gubernatorial PAC. Federal prosecutors alleged that $132,500 from the donation was illegally funneled to P&P in two different wire transfers in the summer of 2018. Those underlying allegations remain in the new indictment.
It’s not unusual for prosecutors to seek superseding indictments when they want to add new charges, defendants or allegations or change the narrative of previous charging documents. In some cases, prosecutors are forced to seek new indictments to cure problems with earlier ones.
In June 2019, a grand jury in Tallahassee issued a superseding indictment in the public corruption case against former City Commissioner and Mayor Scott Maddox and his aide, Paige Carter-Smith, adding a third defendant, John “J.T.” Burnette. Later that year, the grand jury issued a second superseding indictment against Burnette, adding new allegations but no new charges.
A Lynn Haven public corruption case has seen a string of superseding indictments to fix faults with previous iterations. That case has been prosecuted by some of the same attorneys who are handling the Gillum and Lettman-Hicks matter.
The new indictment wasn’t discussed during a pre-trial hearing on Monday before U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor. Lawyers for the government and defense argued about the admissibility of certain recorded conversations between undercover FBI agents and people close to Gillum and other evidence. The hearing is set to continue on Thursday.