Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is facing widespread scrutiny after public records released relating to her office showed that she purchased a $19,000 lectern.
Sanders is also accused of changing records to cover up spending. The controversy first came to light late last month and showed that the state purchased the lectern and an accompanying traveling case in June. The amount paid was $19,029.25 and was given to Beckett Events LLC, which is an events management company with ties to Sanders, a Republican lawmaker who took office in January.
Purchase of a $19,000 Lectern
The information regarding the issue was obtained by a lawyer and blogger, Matthew Campbell, who had filed a broad public records request. He posted the invoice for the purchase of the lectern on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The expenditure on the lectern has been a matter of contention in the state over the last few weeks, including among some of the governor's fellow Republicans. One of her colleagues, State Sen. Jimmy Hickey Jr., asked the state's Legislative Joint Auditing Committee to investigate the matter, as per the New York Times.
Based on the documents that Campbell shared online, the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the $19,000 lectern with a check that was dated Sept. 14.
This date was three months after the purchase of the item. Campbell said that the reimbursement occurred several days after he filed the Freedom of Information Act request for the records and a day before he received a response from the state.
An anonymous whistleblower claimed in late September that Sanders' office improperly altered and withheld public records related to Sanders' office's spending on the item. The lawyer for the whistle-blower sent a letter to Hickey on the day that he requested the audit, offering his client's testimony and documents.
A development that further complicates the issue is the lawyer, Tom Mars, served as the director of the Arkansas State Police under Sanders' father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee. In Mars' letter, he said that his client had documents that could substantiate how people in the governor's office "interfered with the production of nonexempt FOIA documents" that were intended for Campbell.
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Alteration of Spending Records
Now, a legislative panel is expected to vote this week on a request for an audit of the purchase of the lectern. An email about the reimbursement note is among the dozens of documents released on Monday following Campbell's request, according to Yahoo News.
Sanders said that she welcomes an audit of the purchase of the item but has also dismissed questions regarding the issue. An executive assistant and office manager for the governor, Laura Hamilton, added the note after being instructed that she or the agency that handles state purchasing should put it on the original invoice.
A state employee who processes the state's financial paperwork at the Department of Transformation and Shared Services, Cassie Cantlon, said that Hamilton was instructed with regards to the note. When asked if she wanted the note to be dated, she refused, saying that instructions were simply to add the note to the original invoice, said the Arkansas Times.
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