FBI's Florida capital probe seeks emails of ex-mayor
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida's state capital has been hit with a new federal subpoena — this time seeking emails from the city's former mayor and current City Commissioner Scott Maddox, making him the first elected official named in a massive, multi-year FBI public corruption investigation in the Sunshine State.
The demand for documents comes about three months after a pair of federal subpoenas were served on City Hall and the local Community Redevelopment Agency. The new subpoena bears the same case number as those served in June.
Federal authorities also seek the emails of Maddox's aide Allie Merzer Fleming, the head of the city 's downtown improvement authority Paige Carter-Smith and local political consultant Gary Yordon.
Maddox issued a statement Friday afternoon but did not make himself available to answer questions.
"While I am unaware of any specifics in this inquiry, it is clear that I am included in the big net currently being cast," Maddox said. "As my voting record clearly shows, I have always protected the taxpayers' money and advocated in their best interest. This community knows how responsive my office has been to their needs and that will not waver as we cooperate fully with whatever is asked of us."
The subpoena, dated Sept. 6, calls for all emails from January 2012 to the present to or from Maddox, both as a commissioner and as an individual; any Maddox aide, formally and informally, including but not limited to Carter-Smith and Fleming; Yordon; and Carter-Smith.
The city records custodian must deliver the documents by Oct. 3.
Yordon, a former Leon County (Fla.) commissioner, media consultant and host of political talk show The Usual Suspects, said he's not concerned that his name was listed on the subpoena. Yordon worked at Governance Inc., a consulting firm Maddox sold to Carter-Smith in 2010, from 2007 until the spring of 2014.
"I understand that this is how any investigation works," he said. "They're going to run down every name, and probably many more subpoenas will come. You just have to trust in the process. I do."
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Yordon said he had no contact with any of the undercover FBI agents who began appearing in Tallahassee around the summer of 2015, posing as out-of-town businessmen and hobnobbing with elected officials. He also said the only money he ever earned at Governance was a salary.
City Commissioner Curtis Richardson was shocked when he heard about the subpoenas Friday afternoon from a Tallahassee Democrat reporter.
"I'm totally speechless to be honest with you," Richardson said. "I never would have imagined. I certainly wish them well, and they're all people I've known for years. I just hope that things work out however they're going to work out. I don't know what to say."
City Commissioner Nancy Miller said she learned about the subpoena last week from City Attorney Lew Shelley. She said that while the five commissioners all serve together, "no one is really able to police the others."
"That being said, no one's been convicted of anything or even indicted on anything at this point," she said. "The rush to judgment always concerns me. Remember it's an investigation. They're asking for materials they haven't seen yet. So it's not really my place or anyone else's to assume any findings. Clearly, if there is any misbehavior, we want to discover that and then we want to put the safeguards in place to ensure that similar events don't occur in the future."
Mayor Andrew Gillum, who's running for governor, is no longer commenting on the investigation, one of his aides said. Gillum in June acknowledged speaking with the FBI but said he was told he was not a target of its investigation.
However, Gillum was photographed during a trip last year to New York City with a presumed undercover FBI agent going by the alias Mike Miller and a cover story that he owned an Atlanta business called Southern Pines Development. Gillum has said he did not know at the time that Miller may have been an undercover agent.
Carter-Smith, a longtime friend and business associate of Maddox, was one of eight people named in the June subpoenas for documents related to them and several of their businesses. Among those businesses named is Governance, Inc.
Maddox, an attorney and a Democrat, was elected to the City Commission in 1993 and served as the city's first leadership mayor from 1997 until 2003. After unsuccessful bids for attorney general and agriculture commissioner and a brief run for governor, he again won election to the City Commission in 2012.
City Attorney Shelley said the city plans to "fully comply" with the subpoena.