A federal judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on the case on Wednesday, when he is expected to respond to the motion by prosecutors.
Gillum tweeted a screenshot of the government proposal on Monday afternoon, saying “But God” and emojis including hands in prayer.
Gillum was a rising Democratic star who narrowly lost to Republican Ron DeSantis in the 2018 governor’s race. During the election, DeSantis used an ongoing federal investigation into corruption at Tallahassee City Hall to beat his opponent, although Gillum would not be charged until four years later.
After his narrow loss, Gillum planned to use his star power to help Democrats in his home state, particularly in voter registration efforts. But he removed himself from politics and public life in March 2020 after police found him in a Miami Beach hotel room too drunk to talk to a man suspected of having overdosed. Police found three bags of suspected crystal meth, but Gillum said he had had too much alcohol to drink but was not taking drugs. Photos later emerged showing Gillum lying on the floor in his own vomit.
In a nationally televised interview he did with his wife six months after the incident, Gillum, who has three children, said he was bisexual and expressed remorse.
Federal authorities indicted him on 21 counts in June 2022, laying out a scheme in which they alleged Gillum illegally solicited campaign contributions between 2016 and 2019 and promised political favors in exchange for political support. Gillum pleaded not guilty, claiming he was being prosecuted for political reasons, although the charges were brought by the Justice Department during President Joe Biden’s administration.
The trial began in April and ended with the jury acquitting Gillum of a charge that Gillum lied to the FBI about a 2016 trip he took with his brother to New York that included a boat trip and tickets to the popular Broadway show “Hamilton”. .” In 2019, Gillum agreed to pay a $5,000 fine to the state Ethics Commission to settle allegations surrounding the New York trip and a trip to Costa Rica.
But the jury struck on the remaining counts dealing with the complex financial arrangements involving his campaign and non-profit organizations. Initially, federal prosecutors announced they intended to retry Gillum on the remaining charges. But the Tallahassee Democrat reported that jurors had voted 10-2 not guilty on conspiracy and fraud counts.
In a statement provided to the newspaper, jurors called the two holdouts “biased” against Gillum and that the government’s case was “beyond flimsy.”
On the day he was acquitted, Gillum was asked by a reporter when he would be on the ballot again. He replied, “Oh, get out of here.”
