Four fishermen reportedly were rescued Sunday after clinging to a cooler 25 miles off the Florida coast for about eight hours.
One of the rescuers was Brandon Phillips, the former executive director of Donald Trump's campaign in Georgia, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Dean Brodley told the Tallahassee Democrat that he was out spearfishing with Phillips and other friends Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving from Carrabelle, Florida, that morning. The group was 23 miles from shore about 4 p.m. when they ran upon the men in the water, Phillips told the newspaper.
"We were coming back in and were going to hit one more dive spot when I saw something (in the water) I didn't recognize," Phillips said to the Democrat.
Brodley told the newspaper that after Phillips pointed out the object, they decided to move closer out of curiosity.
"He spotted what looked like a buoy, just floating," Brodley said to the Democrat. "And on a whim, we headed in that direction just to see what it was. About halfway to them, we could see them splashing."
Brodley said they were stunned to find the four men hanging onto a floating cooler.
"As we got closer, we saw it was people in the water, splashing, waving their hands, yelling and shouting," Phillips told the Democrat, adding that they pulled the men out of the water and returned to shore before spotting the Coast Guard.
Brodley told the Democrat that the men told them that their boat sank shortly after they started boating in the Gulf about 8 a.m.
"You have to understand, they had no safety gear whatsoever," Brodley told the newspaper. "No life vest, no radio, did not have an EPIRB which is a distress signal, which works by GPS and sends out a distress call."
Media reports did not identify the men who were rescued or what happened to them after they met the Coast Guard.
The Journal-Constitution wrote that Phillips was forced to resign from Trump's Georgia campaign last month after a 2008 report surfaced about a 2008 crime. Phillips pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing charges then, WSB-TV reported.
Phillips was sentenced to 36 months probation and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of more than $1,500, WSB-TV reported. He was granted early release from the probation.
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