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Amid Ethics Probe, Text Messages Show Gillum Was Given 'Hamilton' Tickets By FBI Agent

Ryan Dailey
/
WFSUNews

The Tampa Bay Times is reporting Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was given a ticket to the Broadway play Hamilton by an undercover FBI agent in 2016. Gillum and his lawyer have both maintained the candidate was given the ticket by his brother.

The Hamilton ticket is one key piece of a State Ethics Board investigation that has Gillum at its center. Also being investigated is lobbyist Adam Corey, who along with Gillum and undercover FBI agents also attended the play in New York City. The FBI was in the middle of a probe into corruption in Tallahassee government at the time.  In a September interview, Gillum’s lawyer Barry Richard vehemently defended the candidate’s story that Gillum’s brother, Marcus Gillum, provided the Hamilton ticket.

"He met his brother in New York to go see Hamilton, and his brother gave him a ticket to Hamilton. So, there’s a big uproar over where did the ticket come from. Did it come from Adam Corey? Because Corey went as well. Adam Corey and Andrew and his brother have been friends since college," Richard said.

In text messages published in the Times’ report, Corey tells Gillum the undercover agent, going by the name Mike Miller, and his friends “Have tickets for us.” Richard, in the September interview, said Corey was not the one who procured the ticket.

"Nobody, including Corey, has said that Corey gave them the ticket," Richard said. "Nobody has said that."

Responding to the Times’ story, Gillum maintains he got the ticket from his brother.

Ryan Dailey is a reporter/producer for WFSU/Florida Public Radio. After graduating from Florida State University, Ryan went into print journalism working for the Tallahassee Democrat for five years. At the Democrat, he worked as a copy editor, general assignment and K-12 education reporter.