Gillum Trial Day 5: Prosecutors trace money trail from 'urgent request' for $250K

A top campaign adviser and an official with a nonprofit that served as a passthrough for campaign money to Andrew Gillum's gubernatorial political action committee took the stand on Friday, the fifth day of his federal trial.

Gillum, former Tallahassee mayor and the 2018 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. This report will be updated later this evening.

Decoding the indictment ABCs: Guide to the people, organizations in Andrew Gillum trial

Andrew Gillum trial Day 1: Jury selected, possible witnesses and an appeal to raise $1M

Gillum Trial Day 2 opening arguments: Money as a motive or forcing the evidence?

Andrew Gillum trial Day 3: How agents confronted mayor at Cascades; Adam Corey's moment

Trial Day 4: Why the feds delayed charging Andrew Gillum and the money trail

Prosecutors show jury how campaign cash passed through non-profit

The government called John H. Jackson, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, to testify about a $250,000 donation from Donald Sussman, a South Florida billionaire and major Gillum donor. Jackson, a longtime friend of both Gillum and Lettman-Hicks, also serves on the board of the Opportunity to Learn Action Fund, a grantmaking affiliate of the foundation.

Sussman didn’t want to give the money directly to the campaign because he didn’t want his name to appear in finance reports. So Lettman-Hicks came up with a plan to move the money through OLTAF, a 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Milligan II noted during questioning of Jackson that it wasn’t illegal for such nonprofits to serve as passthroughs for campaign donations. Jackson said the nonprofit could only expend 40% of its funds on partisan political activity.

Jackson testified that during the 2018 primary, Lettman-Hicks asked whether OTLAF, a 501 (c) (4) social welfare nonprofit, could accept the donation and pass it through to Forward Florida. She texted him May 22, 2018, with an “urgent request.”

“Please give me a call,” she wrote. “I need to move $250K through a C-4 ASAP.”

Jackson replied that Opportunity to Learn couldn't distribute that much money to a PAC. Eventually, Opportunity to Learn accepted the full donation but gave only $100,000 to Forward Florida. The nonprofit expended most of the rest of the money by hiring Lettman-Hicks’ firm, P&P Communications, as a vendor.

The nonprofit contracted with Lettman-Hicks's firm for social media messaging, direct mail, door-to-door canvassing, phone banking and rides to the polls. The contract stated that those activities were not be used to advance a single candidate.

As part of the contract, P&P was supposed to produce a report within 60 days of the primary election showing how the money was spent. However, P&P didn’t deliver that report until more than a year later, in December 2019, in response to federal subpoenas for OTLAF records.

Under questioning from Milligan, Jackson testified that P&P’s report didn’t show that it ever engaged in a social media campaign, direct mail and other activities spelled out in the contract. Instead, it included polling data and information copied and pasted from the Ballotpedia website about where Democratic candidates for Florida governor stood on education issues.

“Does this report show compliance with the contract?” Milligan asked.

“Not with regard to those specific activities,” Jackson replied.

The indictment alleges that the $132,000 was illegally disbursed to Gillum and Lettman-Hicks.

Under cross-examination by Mutaqee Akbar, one of Lettman-Hicks’ lawyers, Jackson said he never saw a reason to file a breach of contract lawsuit against Lettman-Hicks. He also said the contract with P&P was a “serious” one.

Margot Moss, one of Gillum’s lawyers, asked Jackson whether he trusted Gillum’s “moral values” and whether he knew him to be an “honest person.”

“Yes,” he replied.

Jackson testified that he felt comfortable working with Lettman-Hicks because her company had a proven track record, including successfully pushing for the 2002 class-size constitutional amendment.

A former educational director for the NAACP, he said he'd known Lettman-Hicks since the early 2000s, when they met at a conference. He met Gillum through her shortly after. Jackson routinely sent her Sunday texts with Bible verses, which government prosecutors scrolled through quickly on TV monitors.

Judge instructs jury to disregard FBI agent’s testimony about Gillum and bribery

On Thursday, Michael Wiederspahn, a former FBI special agent, testified that he believed Gillum was involved in bribery even though he wasn’t charged with that and the government found no proof of it.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor instructed jurors to disregard that testimony.

“You must not take that into consideration,” Winsor said.

Trial may not last three weeks after all

Judge Winsor also told jurors that the trial, initially scheduled to last three weeks, would likely take less time to complete.

“I’m not sure how much less,” he said, adding the proceedings were still “fluid.”

Former Gillum campaign strategist offers a glimpse into the dash for cash

Scott Arceneaux, a top Gillum adviser during his 2018 gubernatorial run, testified about the inner workings of the campaign and frantic efforts to raise money after the mayor scored an upset victory in the Democratic primary.

“When he won the primary, this thing exploded,” he said, “and we were all hanging on for 60 days.”

He told jurors that his myriad of duties included approving payments to paid campaign staff and others. Lettman-Hicks, who earned $20,000 a month as a senior adviser, managed schedules and logistics, which included figuring out where Gillum would be and what he would be doing on an hourly basis.

The government showed jurors an email Gillum sent to Arceneaux and other campaign officials on Nov. 7, 2018, the day after the mayor narrowly lost the election to Ron DeSantis.

“This is hard,” Gillum wrote. “As we proceed to wrap up the affairs of the campaign, I am assigning Sharon to oversee campaign budgets for (the Gillum campaign and Forward Florida) starting today.”

According to the indictment, Gillum and Lettman-Hicks then moved $60,000 in get-out-the-vote money to P&P’s bank account. The pair allegedly said the money was reimbursement for get out the vote expenses that P&P never actually incurred.

Arceneaux, under questioning by Milligan, said he wasn’t aware at the time that P&P was doing get out the vote efforts for the campaign. He didn’t know about the $60,000 payment until pre-trial preparation with prosecutors.

“I was surprised,” he said.

Arceneaux said the campaign was in dire need of money by May 2018, a few months before the primary. Gillum’s Democratic rival were all raising bigger sums.

“We were living on fumes in the primary ― spending what we raised each month,” he said. “We were struggling.”

Gillum flew to Miami on May 22, 2018, to meet with Sussman and secure his $250,000 donation. Campaign officials were trying to find a passthrough organization for the money because Sussman, who’d already given to Gwen Graham, didn’t want his donation disclosed.

Arceneaux testified that the campaign reached out to a PAC, which works to advance Black candidates. But the political action committee said it couldn’t take the money, leaving the campaign scrambling to find an alternative. Not long after, Lettman-Hicks got Opportunity to Learn to accept the donation.

During cross-examination, Gillum lawyer David Markus asked whether the mayor was “working hard to become governor in good faith.”

“Yes,” said Arceneaux, a former campaign strategist whose clients included President Joe Biden, state Rep. Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, and others. He now serves as a deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Treasury Department.

Trademarking Gillum as a counterweight to Trump merch

Arceneaux said he and Lettman-Hicks didn’t disagree too often but that when they did, “I would generally lose.” Lettman-Hicks ran Gillum’s first campaign for City Commission in 2003 and opened doors for him with the People for the American Way Foundation, where he worked for years. He said the two were “very close.”

He told jurors during cross-examination by Lettman-Hicks lawyer Alex Morris that after the primary, the campaign began talking about “branding” Gillum with a logo that would appear in ads and on apparel.

Gillum told lawyers with Stearns & Weaver, counsel for the campaign, that he wanted Lettman-Hicks to own the trademark. The hope was it would take off like then-President Donald Trump's MAGA merchandise ― but "for the other side."

“It’s a long-term investment, in theory, if things work out the right way,” Morris said.

Arceneaux agreed. But he told Markus during cross-examination that he advised Gillum not to sell the trademark. Gillum rejected his advice.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea,” Arceneaux said.

Gavel to gavel coverage

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).

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Andrew Gillum corruption trial Day 5: Updates from the courtroom