Former Mayor Andrew Gillum, his 2018 campaign for governor focus of federal subpoena

Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is under the cloud of an FBI investigation again, this time over his 2018 campaign for governor and his work with a Massachusetts nonprofit organization and a local public relations firm owned by one of his closest advisers.

It’s unclear whether the investigation is related to a long-running public corruption probe in Tallahassee that led to the indictments starting last year of Gillum’s one-time colleague, City Commissioner Scott Maddox, former Downtown Improvement Authority Executive Director Paige Carter-Smith and wealthy developer John “J.T.” Burnette.

A federal grand jury in Tallahassee issued at least one subpoena dated March 26 involving Gillum and his campaign, a source with knowledge of the matter told the Tallahassee Democrat. Listed on the subpoena was Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kunz, who is heading up the Maddox prosecution, and an FBI agent whose name hasn’t appeared on previously reported subpoenas.

The Tampa Bay Times, which broke the story, reported one subpoena demands records dating back to January 2015, during Gillum’s first year as mayor, along with more recent records involving his gubernatorial campaign and his political action committee, Forward Florida, which raised nearly $37 million for the election, though more money has come in since.

The subpoena also seeks information about Sharon Lettman-Hicks, one of Gillum’s oldest and closest political advisers, and her public relations firm P&P Communications, which put Gillum on the payroll after he left his job with the People for the American Way Foundation ahead of his statewide run.

Also named were the nonprofit Schott Foundation for Public Education and the related Opportunity to Learn Action Fund; Donald Sussman, a philanthropist and major Gillum donor; and Harris Parnell, an adviser who worked with Sussman, according to the Times report.

Gillum did not personally respond Thursday to a request for comment. However, a spokesman issued a statement saying the campaign followed the law.

“We ran an open and honest campaign,” Gillum said in the release. “A campaign powered by thousands of volunteers and supporters. A campaign that captured imaginations and earned over four million votes. When you run a campaign that puts the power in the hands of the people and fights for change, it inevitably invites close scrutiny, regardless of the facts. We stand ready to assist any future review of our work, because I am confident we always did the right thing and complied fully with the law.”

The back story

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The subpoena surfaced about a month after Gillum settled state ethics charges, agreeing to pay a $5,000 fine, over his out-of-town trips with family, lobbyist friends and others, including undercover FBI agents involved in the Maddox probe. During a 2016 trip to New York City, Gillum saw “Hamilton” and went on a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty with a group that included undercover agents posing as out-of-town businessmen.

The FBI investigation that led charges against Maddox began in 2015 with the arrival of undercover agents. It became public in June 2017, after subpoenas dropped on City Hall demanding information about dealings with Burnette and other prominent local business people, including lobbyist and restaurateur Adam Corey, a one-time close friend of Gillum who joined him on the trip to New York and another in 2016 to Costa Rica.

Gillum was only months into his campaign for Florida governor when the subpoenas arrived. He issued a statement at the time saying he’d met with FBI agents as part of the City Hall probe and was cooperating with its investigation. He also said he was told by the FBI he was not a focus of the probe, something the bureau never confirmed.

Barry Richard, who represented Gillum in the ethics proceedings, said that while he was aware of new subpoenas, he had no details on the latest FBI inquiry. He suggested, however, that Gillum’s political enemies may be feeding information to the bureau.

“There is obviously someone or some group that is determined to damage Gillum’s political career," Richard said. “And anytime anybody complains to the FBI or makes a suggestion of wrongdoing, they’re going to investigate it. And in my experience, they will continue to investigate it until they’re satisfied one way or the other. The fact that they investigate it, means that they are doing their job, not that they suspect any guilt.”

The city of Tallahassee, which received four federal subpoenas in 2017 and 2018 related to the corruption probe, has not been subpoenaed as part of the latest Gillum inquiry, said Alison Faris, a city spokeswoman. City Attorney Cassandra Jackson said the city hasn't gotten a federal subpoena since June 2018.

Gillum has been associated with the Schott Foundation since at least 2010, when it posted a video on YouTube of then-Commissioner Gillum talking about the Opportunity to Learn campaign. The Times reported he was a board member until March 2017, when he launched his campaign for governor.

Gillum won the Democratic nomination in an upset but lost the general election to Republican Ron DeSantis, who hammered him about the FBI probe in televised debates. Gillum also served as president of the Opportunity to Learn Action Fund as recently as 2017, the Times reported.

Gillum’s association with Lettman-Hicks goes back much further — to the early 2000s —when he was student body president at Florida A&M University. She helped him get a job with the PFAW Foundation in 2002, which opened doors to famed television producer Norman Lear and other Hollywood activists and donors.

His office with PFAW was located in Lettman Square, a building on Melvin Street owned by Lettman-Hicks that was also home to her P&P firm. PFAW closed up shop in the building in February 2017, on the eve of Gillum’s run for governor, after its lease expired, she told the Democrat in an interview last year. Gillum’s campaign headquarters moved in the following month.

His campaign paid P&P Communications at least $35,900 in rent in 2017 and 2018, according to campaign finance reports. Gillum also earned $71,680 in 2017 working as P&P’s vice president, according to financial disclosure forms and state corporate records. He stepped down from P&P in late 2017 to focus more on his campaign, Lettman-Hicks said in the previous interview.

The Schott Foundation lists Lettman-Hicks as a member of its board and describes her as former CEO of the National Black Justice Commission, which advocates for black lesbians and gays. In 2014, then-President Barack Obama appointed her to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. She did not return a phone call from the Democrat.

P&P gave $5,000 to Forward Florida, though the PAC later returned $3,000. Forward Florida also accepted a $10,000 donation in 2017 from Governance Services, a firm federal prosecutors later alleged was secretly controlled by Maddox and took in bribe money from city vendors. Forward Florida returned the donation in early 2018.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.

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