Andrew Gillum, who as mayor chairs the CRA, has been accused of no wrongdoing and has stressed that he is not the target of an investigation. | AP Photo Gillum releases records related to trips under ethics investigation, but questions remain

TALLAHASSEE — The gubernatorial campaign of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum released receipts tied to trips that are part of a state ethics investigation, including a visit to New York City during which he was photographed with a person believed to be an undercover FBI agent.

The campaign wanted the document dump to end questions about the trips, including who funded them. But the new spending records offer little in the way of concrete evidence regarding who paid for key elements of the travel.


Gillum’s biggest political liability following his surprising Democratic primary win last week has been the ongoing FBI probe into the city’s taxpayer-funded Community Redevelopment Agency. Gillum, who as mayor chairs the CRA, has been accused of no wrongdoing and has stressed that he is not the target of an investigation.

But scrutiny has only increased since he became his party’s nominee for governor.

Gillum said that he would release receipts related to the two trips after he met with investigators with the Florida Commission on Ethics, which has been reviewing the trip.

Documents tied to the probe are not public, but Gillum’s campaign decided to release them Tuesday in what it says was a nod towards “transparency.”

The document release includes receipts showing he stayed at the Ameritania Hotel in New York during an August 2016 trip to an Open Society Foundation event for his previous job with the American Way Foundation. On that trip, he attended the musical “Hamilton” with his brother, Marcus, and Adam Corey, a lobbyist and longtime Gillum political supporter. He also took a boat ride where he was photographed with a man known only as “Mike Miller,” a person now widely believed to be an undercover FBI agent part of the corruption probe. The trip was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat.

The release also included a handful of documents outlining some elements of his May 2016 visit to Costa Rica, a trip in which he says he and his wife, R. Jai Gillum, paid cash for their share of a $1,400-a-night luxury resort. Also on the trip were Corey and lobbyist Sean Pittman, who is also helping run Gillum’s gubernatorial campaign.

The records, though, offer no physical evidence of who paid for many elements of the trips, including the following:

— The New York City hotel. Gillum’s campaign says his previous employer paid for the ticket, but can offer no evidence backing the claim. The only document provided from the trip was an unsigned hotel room receipt.

— Expenses from the three-day trip to New York City, including expenses like food and transportation.

— The boat tour on which Gillum was photographed with a man known only as “Mike Miller,” who is believed to be an FBI agent who is part of the investigation into Tallahassee’s CRA.

— The campaign released bank records showing a $400 cash withdrawal during the May 2016 Costa Rica trip that it says was used to pay for the resort, but can offer no evidence further supporting that claim. Christopher Kise, an attorney representing Corey, disputes that Gillum paid $400 for the trip. He told the Associated Press Tuesday night that he has not received any cash for the Costa Rica stay to date.

— The campaign also released images of airline tickets purchased for the Costa Rica trip, but nothing to show who paid for them.

“If I've got more, I'll absolutely get them out to [the] press,” Geoff Burgan, a Gillum spokesman, said when asked follow-up questions. “That's what I have right now.”

"We're thrilled about the Mayor's victory last Tuesday, and we've got several exciting announcements coming in the next few days," Burgan added.

Gillum's campaign, meanwhile, quietly parted ways Tuesday with campaign manager Brendan McPhillips, a Pennsylvania Democrat who had been brought in after a previous campaign shakeup; he had never meshed with Gillum's team of Florida insiders.

Steven R. Andrews, a Tallahassee attorney representing the city’s former manager — who testified in July before the federal grand jury — said he believes Gillum is in the clear because prosecutors never asked his client about the mayor.

“I don’t think the mayor is part of anything they’re looking into — at least from what I’ve heard,” Andrews told POLITICO. “I don’t think Andrew has anything to worry about, not from what I know.”

So far, no documents released by the city in the investigation have shown any sign that Gillum participated in any corruption. Gillum boasts that he voluntarily sat with investigators in June 2017 without a lawyer present — a sign, he says, that he’s not under investigation. Gillum said agents told him he wasn’t a target.

This hasn't stopped political foes from pouncing on the issue. When Gillum secured the nomination, the Republican Governor’s Association quickly produced a digital ad and website giving a rough timeline of the Gillum headlines tied to the probe. GOP gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis’ campaign issued a statement Tuesday night noting that the records release left questions unanswered about who paid for Gillum’s trips to New York City and Costa Rica.

“These receipts do nothing to shed light on his luxury trips to Costa Rica and New York City with lobbyists and undercover FBI agents,” said Stephen Lawson, a DeSantis spokesman. “In fact, they simply raise more questions about Gillum’s ongoing involvement.”

No one has been charged in the case — a stark contrast with the indictments and convictions in the Robert Mueller probe of the president that DeSantis has tried to stop on Capitol Hill. In a statement sent with the release of the receipts, Gillum’s camp tried to turn the table on the congressman, highlighting the several statements DeSantis made in favor of the halting the Mueller probe.

“The FBI has a job to do — and whether it’s Washington D.C. or Florida, Congressman DeSantis and President Trump should allow the agency to do its work,” Gillum said in the statement. “Here in Florida, we’ve done everything we can to aid the agency, while Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump have done the exact opposite.”

Arek Sarkissian contributed to this report.