TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Andrew Gillum and Sharon Lettman-Hicks are now facing two fewer criminal charges than before, with their trial set to begin on Monday. The two are accused of having committed wire fraud in the midst of Gillum's campaign for Governor, for which Lettman-Hicks was an advisor.
A superseding indictment was filed on Tuesday, revising one filed last year which brought 21 charges against the pair. Defense attorneys have called the reduction a sign that the full body of charges may be similarly fallible.
Gillum and Lettman-Hicks are accused by prosecutors of soliciting some $66,250 in funds for their campaign, before then transferring it to an organization Lettman-Hicks owned and later into their own pockets.
Attorney Mutaqee Akbar, a member of the defendants' counsel, has said that he does not expect this change by the prosecution to delay the start of the trial.
Gillum served on the Tallahassee City Commission from 2003 to 2018, having been elected Mayor in 2014. When he ran for Governor in 2018 he was widely expected to lose in the Democratic primary, but pulled off an upset win to become the first black nominee for Governor in Florida's history.
He then matched up against the Republican nominee, then-Congressman Ron DeSantis. Though most polls had Gillum as the favorite, DeSantis beat Gillum narrowly to win his first term as Governor.
