Prosecutors move to drop remaining conspiracy charges against Gillum

May 16 (UPI) -- Prosecutors have moved to drop charges against Andrew Gillum in a federal probe that helped derail Andrew Gillum's campaign for Florida governor against Ron DeSantis.

Prosecutors filed a "motion to dismiss" the charges against Gillum and his associate Sharon Lettman-Hicks Monday in the case presided over by U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor.

The judge did not immediately take action required to formally dismiss the remaining charges but is scheduled to hold a hearing on the case Wednesday where he is expected to act on the motion.

"Andrew Gillum had the courage to stand up and say I am innocent and that is finally being recognized," defense attorneys David Oscar Markus, Margot Moss and Katie Miller said in response to the motion. "We want to thank the hard-working jury who did their job and explained to the government why it should drop the case.

"Andrew has endured a lot over the past few years and now can resume his life and public service."

Prosecutors had initially sought a retrial in the case after a federal jury cleared Gillum on a charge of lying to the FBI on May 4 and deadlocked on 18 other conspiracy and wire fraud charges after a three-week trial.

However, after the trial, several anonymous jurors said they nearly unanimously cleared Gillum and Lettman-Hicks on the remaining counts but could not reach a final decision because of two holdouts they described as biased.

Prosecutors were able to win guilty pleas and prison time against former mayor and city council commissioner Scott Maddox and his aide, Paige Carter-Smith in 2019. Developer John Burnette was found guilty in his 2021 trial.

All the cases were part of the government's Operation Capital Currency sting that started in 2015 where FBI agents posed undercover as crooked developers in Tallahassee.

The government used emails and texts showing an undercover FBI agent posing as a developer named Mike Miller who arranged outings for Gillum during a 2016 trip to New York City, including a performance of the Broadway play Hamilton. They also charged that Gillum illegally used campaign contributions.

The DeSantis campaign bludgeoned Gillum on the ongoing FBI investigation against him in the final weeks of Florida's tight gubernatorial campaign in 2018, even though he would not be charged until after the election, and eventually won the razor-thin race.