After five days of drama and deliberations, jurors found former Tallahassee, Fla., Mayor Andrew Gillum not guilty of lying to the FBI about a “Hamilton” ticket and other gifts he got from undercover FBI agents in New York, USA Today reports. They deadlocked on the most serious charges against Gillum, the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor, and co-defendant Sharon Lettman-Hicks, involving the misuse of campaign funds. The jury was unable to reach consensus on one count of conspiracy and 17 counts of wire fraud against both defendants. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Milligan II said the government will retry Gillum and Lettman-Hicks on the conspiracy and wire fraud charges.
Gillum lamented that he had "people who you’ve known forever ... doubt you, to read things about you that not only don’t resemble the truth but don’t resemble who you are." ,Gillum narrowly lost the governor’s race to Ron DeSantis. The acquittal and partial mistrial marked major setbacks for the government's long-running and costly Operation Capital Currency investigation, which saw undercover FBI agents posing as crooked developers descend on Tallahassee starting in 2015. The investigation led to guilty pleas from former Mayor and City Commissioner Scott Maddox and his aide, Paige Carter-Smith, and guilty verdicts against their co-defendant, developer John “J.T.” Burnette. Jurors signaled that they were struggling to reach consensus on all but the false statements charge, prompting the judge to send back notes encouraging them to keep trying. At least one holdout on the jury, and maybe more, didn’t budge as a result. Seven women and five men served on the jury; five of the jurors are Black.