Day 7: Campaign operatives testify they weren't aware of P&P get-out-the-vote efforts
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Andrew Gillum’s 2018 general-campaign manager and two other top members of his gubernatorial campaign testified on behalf of the government on Tuesday, the seventh day of the former mayor’s public corruption trial.
Gillum, former Tallahassee mayor and Democratic nominee for Florida governor, and Lettman-Hicks, his longtime mentor and owner of P&P Communications, are charged with illegally soliciting campaign donations and routing them to their own accounts. Gillum also is charged with lying to the FBI about gifts undercover FBI agents gave him during a 2016 trip to New York City.
Here are the latest developments in the trial. While cameras and electronics are not allowed in the courtroom, stay tuned to tallahassee.com for daily updates from longtime investigative reporter Jeff Burlew (@JeffBurlew on Twitter).
ANDREW GILLUM TRIAL: Chronicling the case
Day 1: Jury selected, possible witnesses and an appeal to raise $1M
Day 2 opening arguments: Money as a motive or forcing the evidence?
Day 3: How agents confronted mayor at Cascades; Adam Corey's moment
Day 4: Why the feds delayed charging Andrew Gillum and the money trail
Day 5: Prosecutors trace money trail from 'urgent request' for $250K
Day 7: Campaign operatives testify they weren't aware of P&P get-out-the-vote efforts
Decoding the indictment ABCs: Guide to the people, organizations in Andrew Gillum trial
Gillum campaign manager doesn’t recall P&P working as get-out-the-vote vendor
Brandon Davis, who served as campaign manager for Gillum after his improbable victory in the August 2018 primary, testified about his knowledge of get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts.
Prosecutors allege $60,000 of the campaign’s GOTV money went to Lettman-Hicks’ firm, P&P Communications, before ultimately going to her and Gillum.
Davis testified he didn’t recall P&P working as a vendor for the campaign. He noted numerous other firms hired to do communications and voter outreach.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Milligan II asked about $130,000 that the campaign paid for GOTV in Leon and Gadsden counties. The money went to on-the-ground campaign workers who were knocking on doors and phone-banking and others. The biggest chunk, some $60,000, went to P&P, according to records prosecutors have shown to the jury.
Milligan asked whether $130,000 was a “reasonable” amount for GOTV in the Tallahassee area.
“It’s hard to say,” Davis said. “It doesn’t feel totally out of whack.”
Milligan also asked whether he was aware that P&P was doing GOTV for the campaign.
“Not that I was aware of,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily have been aware of it.”
Under cross-examination by Gillum lawyer David Markus, Davis said the campaign raised some $56 million. He noted that after the primary, the campaign didn’t have the luxury of time to build a “perfect” operation because it had to “move so quickly” to staff up and raise money.
Davis also testified about Gillum’s “kitchen cabinet,” a term used to describe a campaign’s top advisers. He said it consisted of Lettman-Hicks, lawyer/lobbyist Sean Pittman, former Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Arceneaux and Chris Chestnut, a lawyer who was disbarred in 2019.
Back story: Gillum consulting group entangled with Chestnut legal woes
Google and bank employees testify about Gillum emails, checks
Monica Kersey of Centennial Bank testified about a series of cashier’s checks that Gillum deposited in 2018. Among them were two $10,000 checks he cashed in September of that year.
Those two checks, written by P&P, underlie two of the counts in the indictment against him. Laying the legal groundwork, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Ravello asked whether the banks servers are located in Florida.
Kersey testified that the servers are not in Florida. Under federal law, the crime of wire fraud is committed when someone uses interstate transmissions to further a scheme.
Shelby Smith, custodian of records for Google, testified that emails exchanged via Gmail went through servers that are not located in the state of Florida. Nicholas Karabetsos, who works for email provider IONOS, Inc., also testified that company servers are located out of state.
Three of the wire fraud counts against Lettman-Hicks and Gillum involve emails that furthered their alleged scheme.
Vince Evans testifies about Gillum GOTV efforts in waning days of election
Vince Evans, executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus and a former aide to City Commissioner Curtis Richardson, said he joined the Gillum campaign during the August congressional recess. He served as political director for North Florida and helped oversee get-out-the-vote efforts.
He said the GOTV consisted of door knocking, rides to the polls, handing out literature from the Gillum campaign and several local campaigns that teamed up to get voters to the polls.
“They were obviously compensated for their work,” Evans said under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Milligan II. “As I recall, the Gillum for Governor campaign was paying for the workers.”
Milligan asked whether Evans knew what specific role P&P played in GOTV.
“No, not specifically,” Evans replied, though he said P&P was being utilized to pay the GOTV workers.
Under cross-examination by Gillum lawyer Margot Moss, Evans said he knew the former mayor as "an honest man" and that he thought highly enough of him to take a leave of absence from his job in Washington to help the campaign.
Late last week, Evans was tapped by President Joe Biden to serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans
Former finance director testifies about surprise $250,000 donation
Akilah Ensley, who served as finance director for the Gillum campaign during the primary, testified about going to meet billionaire Donald Sussman in early February and May 2018.
She traveled with Gillum to meet with him the first time, she said under questioning from the government. They were hoping he would give perhaps as much as $75,000 and were happily surprised when he offered a quarter of a million dollars.
“It was pretty amazing,” she said.
Because Sussman wanted to remain anonymous, the money couldn’t go directly to Forward Florida, Gillum’s gubernatorial PAC, which wasn’t constrained by campaign finance limits. The check was too big to go to his hard money account, which had $3,000 limits.
The campaign turned to the Collective PAC and its affiliated social welfare nonprofit, Collective Future, which could legally take the money and pass it to Forward Florida. Ensley testified that to her knowledge, the full donation went to Forward Florida, minus a handling fee.
Gillum, without Ensley, met with Sussman again in May at his office in Fort Lauderdale, securing another $250,000 donation.
Collective Future, which can only spend up to 40% of its revenue on partisan politics, was maxed out and couldn’t take the money. Ensley said that prompted top campaign officials to scramble to find another entity that could.
The campaign approached the BlackPAC, but the committee wanted total control of the donation, which the Gillum campaign found unacceptable.
Finally, Lettman-Hicks secured a willing fiscal sponsor in the Opportunity to Learn Action Fund, an offshoot of the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
Prosecutors allege that only $100,000 of the donation went from Opportunity to Learn to Forward Florida, with a chunk of the rest going to Gillum and Lettman-Hicks personally.
Ensley also testified that she was reassigned after the primary as the campaign looked to bring in a more experienced fundraiser. She said the move “broke” her. She was assigned as chief of staff for Gillum’s wife, R. Jai, and worked with various surrogates.
She said she loved working with R. Jai. “She’s wonderful,” Ensley said.
Ensley also described Lettman-Hicks as Andrew Gillum’s “political godmother” and said she had a “very interesting” personality.
“I always saw her as very hands-on,” Ensley said. “She had very strong opinions sometimes about how things should be done.”
Sussman himself isn't expected to be called as a witness. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor said Tuesday that he would give a statement to jurors about the wealthy donor as part of a stipulation between the government and the defense. The statement read in part that Sussman would not have given money for an "illegal use" and that when he gave Gillum $250,000 in May 2018, he agreed it was "for whatever (Gillum) needs to help get elected."
Juror issues arise as the government plans to wrap its case
The government signaled Tuesday that it plans to recall two witnesses, FBI agents Evan Hurley and Michael Wiederspahn, and call a final witness, Andrew Gay, a former Gillum campaign treasurer. The government plans to wrap after that, which could happen as soon as Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor mentioned two juror issues that had come up, though details were not clear because they were discussed at sidebar with white noise playing in the courtroom to mask the conversations.
Winsor said he wasn’t inclined to do anything about one of the issues. In response to the other, he drafted a statement given to at least one juror saying he didn’t know when the trial would end. He also cautioned that jurors should not assume they are an alternate.
The jury initially had 12 members and three alternates, though one man was excused early on.
Lawyers for Gillum and Lettman-Hicks said they each expected their defense to last about a day. Winsor told both defendants they will have to decide “at some point” whether they plan to testify.
“The decision is entirely yours,” Winsor said.
Accountant for Lettman-Hicks takes the stand
John Grayson, a CPA who did accounting and tax work for P&P Communications and the National Black Justice Coalition, which Lettman-Hicks founded, testified about the financial books for both entities.
Under questioning from Milligan, Grayson said two payments of $25,000 were paid by NBJC to P&P. One of the payments was listed in ledgers as “rent.”
Milligan asked why.
“I must have been instructed to put it as rent,” said Grayson, who was referred to as Individual D in the indictment.
Prosecutors allege that Lettman-Hicks bought two cashier’s checks for $25,000 in 2017 from NBJC’s bank account and deposited the money into P&P’s accounts. The money allegedly came from donations by the New World Foundation and the Foundation to Promote Open Society to Gillum’s Campaign to Defend Local Solutions, which he formed to fight the gun lobby.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Andrew Gillum Trial Day 7: Updates from the courtroom
