“Hopefully we can get our lives back, when the government decides to stop wasting its money, our money, our tax dollars…on a false positive,” she was quoted as saying. “As far as I’m concerned, they realized two through 19 were bogus,” the TV station quoted her as saying. She withdrew her candidacy, saying, “I must now focus on fighting for my continued freedom.”Ī news report this week by the television station WTXL in Tallahassee quoted Lettman-Hicks saying the final week of the trial and much of the trial focused on Count 1, the false statement charge, for which the jury found Gillum not guilty.

At the time she was indicted, Lettman-Hicks was running as a Democratic candidate for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives. Lettman-Hicks has called the charges against her “baseless” and politically motivated. The indictment charged both Gillum and Lettman-Hicks with 19 counts of wire fraud and one count of attempt and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors alleged that much of the money Gillum received from the FBI sting operation went for his personal use through a company Lettman-Hicks operated called P&P Communications. The indictment made it clear that Gillum and Lettman-Hicks became ensnared in an FBI sting operation that prosecutors said was part of an investigation into what they claimed was ongoing corruption in local government. It says Lettman-Hicks allegedly helped Gillum improperly funnel money solicited from FBI agents posing as real estate developers with a promise of providing something “very significant in return” for Gillum’s support for the developers in his role at the time as mayor of Tallahassee.

The indictment alleged that Lettman-Hicks and Gillum engaged in an illegal political corruption scheme that began in 2015. The trial began about 10 months after a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Florida on June 7, 2022, handed down an indictment charging both Gillum and Lettman-Hicks, who served as a campaign adviser to Gillum, with conspiracy and multiple counts of fraud.

What's Best For You by Judie Angell