Speaker 1: Native lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Everybody, this is Andrew Gillham, and first I want to
Speaker 2: give every one of you who took the time to
Speaker 2: listen to parts one and two of my testimony a
Speaker 2: big thank you for giving my voice an ear. This
Speaker 2: testimony is about basically what my life was and has
Speaker 2: been since the conclusion of the gubernatorial election in two
Speaker 2: thousand and eighteen, and a roller coaster would be one
Speaker 2: way to describe things. Everything from the aftermath of of course,
Speaker 2: the race and what followed more immediately, the Miami incident
Speaker 2: that captured everybody's attention, imagination and every gossiper east west,
Speaker 2: north south, the indictment of myself and a colleague, and
Speaker 2: the trial and then the conclusion of that trial. The
Speaker 2: first one. If you haven't heard it or would like
Speaker 2: to go back and refresh your memory, you'll find it
Speaker 2: at the end of our regular weekly cast. The episode
Speaker 2: is titled Miami a No Sanctuary City. Part two will
Speaker 2: be at the end of the episode titled Faded None
Speaker 2: of These Candidates, and obviously part three right here this
Speaker 2: mini pod, I hope you learn you get to listen
Speaker 2: and that it piques your interests in getting more deeply
Speaker 2: involved in criminal justice reform. We walk into the courtroom.
Speaker 2: When the doors come open, I hear an audible gasp
Speaker 2: in the room and I look around because I'm surveying
Speaker 2: one to make sure my family did not show up
Speaker 2: and they had snuck in there. But as I surveyed
Speaker 2: the room, there's journalists everywhere, journalists in the jury box
Speaker 2: and the stand, their people and whatnot. It is a
Speaker 2: real spectacle. But there the gas was that they noticed
Speaker 2: as I walked in that I was sort of hobbling
Speaker 2: in and I think they were seeing that I was
Speaker 2: chained in this in this way, and my pastor, I
Speaker 2: see him sort of stand up and look over and
Speaker 2: I see him starting to say some words audibly, but
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what he's saying, but I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: he was complaining about, well, why is he this way?
Speaker 2: And the only thought I had as I walked was,
Speaker 2: thank you Jesus. There are no cameras. No one will
Speaker 2: ever see me this way. They can describe it, but
Speaker 2: my kids won't ever see these chains. That was the
Speaker 2: biggest source of embarrassment for me, because I remember back
Speaker 2: to that story of me telling you all that I
Speaker 2: never wanted to make my mom cry for me getting
Speaker 2: in trouble. That's all I could think of was her
Speaker 2: seeing me. So they weren't there. And we go through
Speaker 2: the proceedings and the judge says, this is the United
Speaker 2: States of America versus Andrew Gill never an institution that
Speaker 2: I believed in, like I believed in nothing else. A
Speaker 2: government that I was in service to for all of
Speaker 2: my life was now against me, and I didn't understand
Speaker 2: it for the life of me. And I read, I
Speaker 2: heard they read the indictment out loud. I got a
Speaker 2: copy of it, and I couldn't read it until I
Speaker 2: got home. And as I read it, I didn't even
Speaker 2: see myself reflected in it. I didn't know what this
Speaker 2: garbage was that they decided to call charge. This was
Speaker 2: made up mess out of whole cloth. Fast forward. I'm
Speaker 2: glad to be validated by that fact, by the decision
Speaker 2: of the jury and everything that they have said since
Speaker 2: the case. But I will tell you, I hear those
Speaker 2: words will humble you to your knees. But to hear
Speaker 2: them as a working agent for them, A believer, tried
Speaker 2: and true, a constitutionalist, who made those words of the
Speaker 2: Declaration of Independence in every article of that Constitution at
Speaker 2: its founding, applied to me, even though it wasn't written
Speaker 2: to include me. But I had always stood on the
Speaker 2: side of the promise of who we are and the
Speaker 2: fact that we should always be in the pursuit of
Speaker 2: the great for our country. The next several months were
Speaker 2: just pure hell, y'all, you know it. We all had
Speaker 2: check ins at different times. I mean, I was pretty
Speaker 2: I had chosen to focus exclusively on preparing myself for
Speaker 2: this trial upcoming, and I mean, I'm working all, I
Speaker 2: stopped sleeping, stopping. I can't go through every day and whatnot.
Speaker 2: But but to sit there and to hear these FBI agents,
Speaker 2: the undercover ones, particularly who I had gotten to know him,
Speaker 2: befriend there was some there was something valuable to me.
Speaker 2: And watching them on the standards they were questioned and
Speaker 2: they say, yeah, well we you know, for two years
Speaker 2: we came, he tried to get to know them. Our
Speaker 2: goal was to to to get close to him such
Speaker 2: that he would feel comfortable with us, and that when
Speaker 2: we you know, offered you know, the whatever, we know
Speaker 2: that he was comfortable enough that if his intention was
Speaker 2: to take it, he'd take it da And they then
Speaker 2: start to describe me, and they say, you know, we
Speaker 2: tried to get him to go to Vegas, but he
Speaker 2: said he couldn't. And then we tried to take him,
Speaker 2: you know, skiing and da da da, but he said no.
Speaker 2: And then we said we would be here and he
Speaker 2: said no. And then you know, we started coming more
Speaker 2: to Tallahassee and just doing the things he was doing.
Speaker 2: So we joined the gym and we worked out with him,
Speaker 2: and then we did the I I had no reason
Speaker 2: not to believe that these guys weren't my friends. They
Speaker 2: kept saying they have interest in development of South Side,
Speaker 2: which is the black side of town. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: if you bringing money to invest in south Side, where
Speaker 2: the place you want to be, I'm the mayor of
Speaker 2: this city. May I talk to you about that? And
Speaker 2: so I'm in full pitch bow and there over the
Speaker 2: course of our relationship, our friendship and what clearly was
Speaker 2: not a friendship. But then they start to stay tell
Speaker 2: the jury and the lawyers in response to the questions.
Speaker 2: We had to get to a place where we stopped
Speaker 2: trying to bring him places and then just figure out
Speaker 2: where he's going to be and we'd be there too,
Speaker 2: So if he's on a work trip to New York
Speaker 2: or to DC, they'd have a reason to be there.
Speaker 2: And they use someone who was very close to me
Speaker 2: to learn my schedules and my goings. And so this
Speaker 2: big old Hamilton trip that everybody hears about, no one
Speaker 2: knows that they didn't fly me to New York. They
Speaker 2: didn't do it. I was going to be in New
Speaker 2: York for work. They just happened to want to hang
Speaker 2: out since we were all going to be there at
Speaker 2: the same time. They manufactured a whole situation because they
Speaker 2: needed to be around me. And then they talked about
Speaker 2: the arc of mimitting, which is, we start to get
Speaker 2: to know this guy well enough, so we start to
Speaker 2: mimic the things that he's interested in. We reflect to
Speaker 2: him that we're interested in these things. So all this
Speaker 2: kind of thing. I needed to hear all of this, y'all,
Speaker 2: because I needed to know that I wasn't crazy, that
Speaker 2: I didn't walk into a bunch of terrible situations. These
Speaker 2: then gave me a real life example of what it
Speaker 2: felt like to be hunted. Unfortunately for them, my lawyer
Speaker 2: was able to get them to say. And after all,
Speaker 2: you did. You read his emails, You went through his
Speaker 2: text messages, his voicemails, that this, you all were on
Speaker 2: him for eight years. Did Andrew Gillum perform as you
Speaker 2: would have expected an innocent elected official to have responded? Yes?
Speaker 2: Did he do everything that you would want a good
Speaker 2: public official to do by resisting. Did he ever take
Speaker 2: anything from you? No? Did he ever ask you? No.
Speaker 2: What they're very clear about is they expect me to
Speaker 2: do something for them in exchange for them giving me
Speaker 2: a campaign contribution. I rejected. I cut contact and have
Speaker 2: no other conversation with those fellas again until the government
Speaker 2: forces me to have a conversation. Through this again in
Speaker 2: the spirit of being hunted, I come to realize that
Speaker 2: now they're investigating my campaign for governor because a black
Speaker 2: man can't raise fifty plus million and be not on
Speaker 2: the take. And they come up with a whole story
Speaker 2: around me extorting and setting up ways to pay myself
Speaker 2: for this and the other unbelievable stuff. It was the
Speaker 2: most disastrous and disgusting set of lies I'd ever have
Speaker 2: to listen to, y'all. But the worst of the lies
Speaker 2: that I had to listen to. Were the FBI investigators
Speaker 2: who sat there put my children's name of their school
Speaker 2: where they attended, to put their social Security numbers projected
Speaker 2: in a courtroom without the care to take them out,
Speaker 2: to black them out, to put my wife's most intimate
Speaker 2: whatever in communications and exchanges and everything else up there,
Speaker 2: with no care for us as humans as people, to
Speaker 2: say that I was living beyond my means because I
Speaker 2: was sending three kids to private school while I was
Speaker 2: a public official. By the way, a total and complete lie.
Speaker 2: My children were all of daycare age during this period,
Speaker 2: and the money that we were paying was their school tuition.
Speaker 2: But I'm sending my kids to private school, and you
Speaker 2: told this jury that I was living beyond my means
Speaker 2: because I was paying a church, a church dues, some
Speaker 2: membership dues to a church. Not one piece of evidence
Speaker 2: did they enter into this trial to support their claim.
Speaker 2: It was completely and wholly the story that they made
Speaker 2: up and told themselves, without the ability to prove it
Speaker 2: before a court of law. But they could disparage me,
Speaker 2: they could embarrass us, they could throw us out there
Speaker 2: like that. We didn't We didn't even matter as humans.
Speaker 2: But nobody has ever written about. What was the genesis
Speaker 2: of this FBI investigation? When did you all decide to
Speaker 2: send FBI undercover agents to get on Gillam? What actions
Speaker 2: had he had taken prior to this that would suggest
Speaker 2: that he would be succeptible to a bribery charge? Or
Speaker 2: what's foundationally there that got y'all here? No one has
Speaker 2: written this story about the FBI agent in charge of
Speaker 2: this investigation. Where did he work before he came to
Speaker 2: the FBI? Would it surprise anybody to learn that he
Speaker 2: worked for the father of one of my opponents, a
Speaker 2: former United States Senator who was the chairman of the
Speaker 2: Intelligence Committee of the United States Government, the committee that
Speaker 2: is responsible for the most clandestine operations of this country,
Speaker 2: but also to include the FBI. If the person worked
Speaker 2: for the father of someone who I was running against
Speaker 2: for governor, this story has not been written. Did anybody
Speaker 2: get a tip that Andrew had taken a bride from
Speaker 2: anybody in tel hassee before? Had never even been thought
Speaker 2: to have done so, None of that existed. But yet
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen I became the guy of interest. One woman,
Speaker 2: white older woman who owns a salon married to a
Speaker 2: white male attorney who lives in a very conservative county,
Speaker 2: who we would later learn had on her social media
Speaker 2: prior to her being selected on the jury. Trump is
Speaker 2: still my president. That she got into the jury box
Speaker 2: immediately pushed back from the table. Jury room, pushed back
Speaker 2: from the table. I don't have anything to deliberate. He's
Speaker 2: been guilty before, he's guilty now and all of it.
Speaker 2: And thankfully one of the jurors was able to very
Speaker 2: skillfully bring her around to at least voting on one
Speaker 2: lying to the FBI, and they were able to get
Speaker 2: unanimous agreement after many days of work on that one
Speaker 2: juror to try to get her to see the reason here,
Speaker 2: he says, where's the What did he do? What did?
Speaker 2: He'd say, tell me the lie? Because because everything we've
Speaker 2: looked at is the truth. Can you tell me where
Speaker 2: the lie is? She can't tell a lie because a
Speaker 2: lie didn't exist. I never lied to the FBI, despite
Speaker 2: of their continuous targeting and lying to me. So they
Speaker 2: got her on that one, but she would not make
Speaker 2: any other decisions on any other counts because I was
Speaker 2: already guilty. Well, they worked for a week in that room,
Speaker 2: and I was about to lose every every hope I
Speaker 2: had because it had been such a rough time, but
Speaker 2: I knew somebody was back there fighting for right. And
Speaker 2: prior to going in, my attorneys and myself and RJ
Speaker 2: and I invited my pastor in, you know, and they
Speaker 2: wanted to prepare me. They wanted to talk to me
Speaker 2: my decorum and how I should what was going on happen.
Speaker 2: When I went in, My big question was are they
Speaker 2: going to take me today or will I see my kids?
Speaker 2: And he said, well, they're gonna take you if you
Speaker 2: found guilty on any account. And he says, so, I
Speaker 2: want to prepare you because we think that that that's
Speaker 2: how it may go. And I want you to be ready,
Speaker 2: and RJ, I want you to be ready. And i
Speaker 2: J looked at him and she said, I think you're wrong.
Speaker 2: I think he's not guilty on all of them, and
Speaker 2: I think I think that that's what was taking so long.
Speaker 2: And I looked at this woman like, all right, I
Speaker 2: don't want you to be deluded, because that will hurt
Speaker 2: a lot if if we leave this room and you're
Speaker 2: not ready for that possibility. I don't want that. So
Speaker 2: I had told myself to gird up and just be
Speaker 2: ready for that verdict, so I don't have a reaction.
Speaker 2: And just as we are finishing up the prayer, right,
Speaker 2: we believe in God, and we submit this to you
Speaker 2: and we know you got it. I want to admit
Speaker 2: in that prayer that I was not all the way
Speaker 2: honest because I wasn't convinced and I hadn't left it
Speaker 2: in his hands until RJ grabbed my hand and held
Speaker 2: it in clutch. As we exited our conference room, and
Speaker 2: I got shields over my body and something came into
Speaker 2: my spirit that said, I don't know how God's going
Speaker 2: to do it, but he is going to work this out.
Speaker 2: And I took my seat and when the judge comes
Speaker 2: in and he asked them if they had reached the verdict,
Speaker 2: and they say yes on one and not on any
Speaker 2: of the others, because we got these hold this hold
Speaker 2: out over here. I stand. This is the piece I've
Speaker 2: seen on television a thousand times, so I know that
Speaker 2: everybody stands up. Asked the jury on the on the verdict,
Speaker 2: which what had they decided? And I stood and I
Speaker 2: faced the jury and the four persons said, we've unanimously
Speaker 2: agreed that he is not guilty on count one line
Speaker 2: to the government. This is the one my lawyer told
Speaker 2: me to be prepared for. And I couldn't respond emotionally
Speaker 2: because I wasn't sure exactly what was supposed to happen.
Speaker 2: But I heard my wife and my aunt's gasp and
Speaker 2: there thank you Jesus and their praise, and it just
Speaker 2: came unknone for me because I I was overwhelmed. But
Speaker 2: I have to tell y'all, after that day, I started
Speaker 2: to decline into this space where anger took over every
Speaker 2: part of me. I was so mad. I couldn't take
Speaker 2: calls of congratulations from all the places they were coming
Speaker 2: from because I didn't want to answer the phone and
Speaker 2: sound ungrateful for what God had given me. After the indictment,
Speaker 2: my local bank that I banked with since I was
Speaker 2: twenty three, who underwroot the costs of my home I
Speaker 2: got my first home loan through, sent me a letter
Speaker 2: after I was indicted, telling me that after a random
Speaker 2: review of conditions of our membership, we've decided you don't
Speaker 2: meet them, and you've got thirty days to close all
Speaker 2: your accounts. People who I have been therefore without ever
Speaker 2: being asked, who disappeared I'm thankful for God helping to
Speaker 2: remove those things from my life that I could not.
Speaker 2: I'm thankful for the solid rocks of friends who are
Speaker 2: not fair weather but all weather friends. I'm thankful to
Speaker 2: a loving family who reminded me every single day that
Speaker 2: they loved me and that this was all part of
Speaker 2: God's plan. I know it is in purpose to something greater.
Speaker 2: The enemy never attacks a thing that isn't a threat,
Speaker 2: and when it does attack a threat, it attacks it
Speaker 2: in proportionality. And if you had to produce a document
Speaker 2: that said the United States of America via Andrew Gillum
Speaker 2: and his co defendant, then I must be some hell
Speaker 2: of a threat that through the full force of the government,
Speaker 2: their lies, their disgusting lies, the ruin and wreckage that
Speaker 2: they left behind, and didn't so much as apologize for
Speaker 2: you try to kill me. Put me in the ground
Speaker 2: you missed. And I hope that part of the plan
Speaker 2: that God has from my life is the leveling of
Speaker 2: governmental institutions that abuse their power to go after who
Speaker 2: they have determined to be their enemies. There is real
Speaker 2: racism in the system, y'all. There's real stuff that has
Speaker 2: to be dismantled. About this thing, and I can't wait
Speaker 2: to be about that work. Even more. If you are
Speaker 2: a federal prosecutor and you go to a grand jury
Speaker 2: and you lie to them to get an indictment, you
Speaker 2: should be held accountable for having lied. If you're the
Speaker 2: federal government and you bring suit on an individual and
Speaker 2: you lose, you should have to pay the million dollars
Speaker 2: that I still owe in attorney's fees. You do it
Speaker 2: in civil cases. If someone brings a frivolous lawsuit, they
Speaker 2: get their money not here, so you leave me in wreckage,
Speaker 2: and then you don't have the decency to apologize. The
Speaker 2: system has got to be leveled and changed because while
Speaker 2: I have a microphone and I can talk about what
Speaker 2: my experience is, there are people who are voiceless and
Speaker 2: nameless we can't call them today, who have seen far worse.
Speaker 2: They're sitting in prisons not because they're guilty, but because
Speaker 2: they couldn't afford a defense. They're not there under indictment
Speaker 2: because they did something wrong, but because somebody had determined
Speaker 2: that they needed to be taken off the playing field.
Speaker 2: If a government can do that to you, and we
Speaker 2: know it can, then we got to be courageous enough
Speaker 2: to stand right back up against them and level the
Speaker 2: systems that were designed to do exactly what they do.
Speaker 2: First and foremost, I want to live for my wife
Speaker 2: and for my children. But if God puts breath in
Speaker 2: my body, I'm committed to doing his work his way
Speaker 2: for the rest of my life because I believe that
Speaker 2: I was put on this earth for a reason, and
Speaker 2: I don't know all the reasons yet, but it certainly
Speaker 2: wasn't to leave me desolate, poor, in despair and locked
Speaker 2: up somewhere. He didn't do this for that, I know
Speaker 2: that much. So I believe what He says about me
Speaker 2: and not what they say about me. Thank y'all.
Speaker 1: Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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