The investigation has elicited subpoenas from the Florida Ethics Commission regarding Gillum’s travel expenses and contacts with the FBI while serving has Mayor of Tallahassee.
And the liberal media is ignoring it.
Andrew Gillum, age 39, is running against Ron DeSantis to become Florida’s next governor as Rick Scott makes a bid for the Senate. He has been serving as the Mayor of Tallahassee since 2014.
Gillum has come under fire for accepting money and gifts from undercover FBI agents who presented themselves as businessmen interested in developing Tallahassee.
Earlier this month, Gillum claimed he was not the focus of the FBI’s investigation. “What we have done is, we have welcomed them in,” said Gillum. “If there is someone who has done something wrong, they ought to be held fully accountable for their actions.”
As noted by former FBI Assistant Director Ron Hosko, subjects of federal investigations rarely know they are the subject until “you have handcuffs on you or when an indictment is returned by the grand jury.”
Gillum is facing ethics complaints regarding:
- A lavish trip to Costa Rica with lobbyists
- Use of office funds for a trip intended to drum up support for his gubernatorial campaign
- Acceptance of a $1,000 ticket to see Hamilton in New York City
- Failure to report political donations from undercover FBI agent Mike Miller
“[Officials] need to be careful when they’re accepting things from lobbyists,” says Integrity Florida’s Ben Wilcox, referring to the Hamilton ticket. “We don’t know if that’s the case, but it sure was an opportunity for it.”
Gillum has said little in response to the accusations against him (other than claiming the ordeal is a Republican-led attack). But with a slight lead over DeSantis, it could be that he’s just trying to run out the clock in hopes that he will secure the governorship before he is accused of breaking the law.
“The mayor seems totally oblivious to even the appearance of a conflict of interest,” says Common Cause Florida board member Pete Butzin. “He’s got to understand this thing is going to come back and bite him.”
Gillum says he wants voters to have “certainty” around his ethics when they hit the polls on Tuesday. “There has yet to be a finding of ethical violation of me and certainly nothing criminal,” he said. “And I’ve asked people to measure me off of what my 15 years of service have been.”
According to the latest polls, Gillum leads DeSantis by about 5%.
Editor’s note: The mainstream media and liberal politicians attacked Judge Kavanaugh for something that allegedly happened when he was in high school 30 years ago. Trump is ferociously attacked when he utters words that can be re-written by the media to say something bad. Yet with clear indications that candidate Gillum has a history of bribes and corruption, not only do they not call for his resignation, they actively support him.
I have other reasons for not supporting Gillum, his socialist bent, his anti-law enforcement rhetoric, and more, but it is truly baffling that no one seems to care.