A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Sarah Huckabee Sanders rose to national prominence in part during her time at the lectern as White House press secretary, but the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for the Arkansas governor is undergoing scrutiny and prompting claims that records about it have been altered.
A legislative panel next week will take up a lawmaker's request for an audit to review the purchase of the lectern, which was bought in June for $19,029.25 with a state credit card. The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.
“From my experience, where we're at with this particular thing is we need to allow legislative audit go in,” Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey, who requested the audit, said. “Everyone knows them, they do their work, they're very thorough and then they produce a detailed report that comes to the Legislature through an open committee.”
Questions about the lectern, its cost, how it was purchased and even whether it existed has dominated political talk in Arkansas in recent weeks. The state's largest newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, ran a front-page photo of the lectern last week after Sanders' office allowed the paper to view it.
Sanders, who served as press secretary for former President Donald Trump, took office in January. The governor has said she welcomes the audit, but has also dismissed the questions surrounding the lectern's purchase. Sanders' office has said the reimbursement came from money she had raised for her inauguration.
“People want to manufacture a controversy where there isn’t one," Sanders told reporters Tuesday. “But this is something the state’s been reimbursed for, and I think there are some people who are always going to be angry and always looking for something to complain about and that’s what they’re picking for right now.”
The lectern's purchase was first uncovered by Matthew Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has sued State Police for withholding records he had requested about Sanders' travel and security. Days after Campbell filed his initial suit, Sanders called a special legislative session and proposed broad exemptions to the state's open records law.
Sanders signed into law a measure restricting the public's access to her travel and security records after she and lawmakers backed off more widespread exemptions that faced backlash from media groups, transparency advocates and some conservatives.
Campbell has said the concern isn't just about a lectern, but about how Sanders' office is spending state money.
“Without an audit and without some more information, we don't know whether this is a case of they're too incompetent to be trusted with a state credit card because they don't know what things should cost, or there's actual criminality,” Campbell said Wednesday. “Neither is a good answer but it's enough of an issue that has to be answered.”
Tom Mars, an attorney who served as director of the Arkansas State Police under Sanders' father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, has also said that he has a client with firsthand knowledge that Sanders' office interfered with Campbell's open records requests.
In a letter he sent to Hickey after the lawmaker requested the audit, Mars said the client wishes to remain anonymous and is willing to give a confidential statement to legislative auditors and allow them to review relevant documents in the client's possession. According to Mars' letter, the interference includes the governor's office altering an invoice from Beckett Events LLC, the Virginia firm listed as the seller of the lectern.
Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for Sanders, didn't specifically respond to the allegations in Mars' letter in a statement that nonetheless dismissed them.
“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Hickey's request also asks for an audit of all matters regarding security and travel records for the governor or her office that were retroactively made confidential by the law she signed last month. The law covered travel and security records going back to June 2022.
Republican Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, who co-chairs the Legislative Joint Auditing Executive Committee, said he supports Hickey's request.
“Given the fact that this has become a matter of public concern and that the governor says she welcomes an audit and hopes that legislators complete it without delay, yes, I think we should instruct audit staff to handle this matter," Gazaway said.
Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Sarah Huckabee Sanders rose to national prominence in part during her time at the lectern as White House press secretary, but the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for the Arkansas governor is undergoing scrutiny and prompting claims that records about it have been altered.
A legislative panel next week will take up a lawmaker's request for an audit to review the purchase of the lectern, which was bought in June for $19,029.25 with a state credit card. The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.
“From my experience, where we're at with this particular thing is we need to allow legislative audit go in,” Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey, who requested the audit, said. “Everyone knows them, they do their work, they're very thorough and then they produce a detailed report that comes to the Legislature through an open committee.”
Questions about the lectern, its cost, how it was purchased and even whether it existed has dominated political talk in Arkansas in recent weeks. The state's largest newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, ran a front-page photo of the lectern last week after Sanders' office allowed the paper to view it.
Sanders, who served as press secretary for former President Donald Trump, took office in January. The governor has said she welcomes the audit, but has also dismissed the questions surrounding the lectern's purchase. Sanders' office has said the reimbursement came from money she had raised for her inauguration.
“People want to manufacture a controversy where there isn’t one," Sanders told reporters Tuesday. “But this is something the state’s been reimbursed for, and I think there are some people who are always going to be angry and always looking for something to complain about and that’s what they’re picking for right now.”
The lectern's purchase was first uncovered by Matthew Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has sued State Police for withholding records he had requested about Sanders' travel and security. Days after Campbell filed his initial suit, Sanders called a special legislative session and proposed broad exemptions to the state's open records law.
Sanders signed into law a measure restricting the public's access to her travel and security records after she and lawmakers backed off more widespread exemptions that faced backlash from media groups, transparency advocates and some conservatives.
Campbell has said the concern isn't just about a lectern, but about how Sanders' office is spending state money.
“Without an audit and without some more information, we don't know whether this is a case of they're too incompetent to be trusted with a state credit card because they don't know what things should cost, or there's actual criminality,” Campbell said Wednesday. “Neither is a good answer but it's enough of an issue that has to be answered.”
Tom Mars, an attorney who served as director of the Arkansas State Police under Sanders' father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, has also said that he has a client with firsthand knowledge that Sanders' office interfered with Campbell's open records requests.
In a letter he sent to Hickey after the lawmaker requested the audit, Mars said the client wishes to remain anonymous and is willing to give a confidential statement to legislative auditors and allow them to review relevant documents in the client's possession. According to Mars' letter, the interference includes the governor's office altering an invoice from Beckett Events LLC, the Virginia firm listed as the seller of the lectern.
Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for Sanders, didn't specifically respond to the allegations in Mars' letter in a statement that nonetheless dismissed them.
“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Hickey's request also asks for an audit of all matters regarding security and travel records for the governor or her office that were retroactively made confidential by the law she signed last month. The law covered travel and security records going back to June 2022.
Republican Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, who co-chairs the Legislative Joint Auditing Executive Committee, said he supports Hickey's request.
“Given the fact that this has become a matter of public concern and that the governor says she welcomes an audit and hopes that legislators complete it without delay, yes, I think we should instruct audit staff to handle this matter," Gazaway said.
Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press
Story by Elizabeth Preza • ALTERNET
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS - FEBRUARY 07: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders waits to deliver the Republican response to the State of the Union address by President Joe Biden on February 7, 2023 in Little Rock, Arkansas.© provided by AlterNet
ARepublican state senator in Arkansas requested an audit of his own party’s governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, over the purchase of a $19,000 lectern with a state credit card, the Associated Press reports.
“From my experience, where we’re at with this particular thing is we need to allow legislative audit go in,” Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey told the AP. “Everyone knows them, they do their work, they’re very thorough and then they produce a detailed report that comes to the Legislature through an open committee.”
The panel will convene next week to review the “purchase of the lectern,” the AP reports, which was “bought in June for $19,029.25.” In August, the Arkansas Republican Party “reimbursed the state” for the purchase, the report adds.
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According to the AP, Hickey is also asking “for an audit of all matters regarding security and travel records for the governor or her office that were retroactively made confidential by the law she signed last month.”
As ABC News reported last month, Sanders overhauled the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and “[broadened] what security details from the governor's travel and other constitutional officers' are exempt from the law.”
The changes also included “a retroactive clause to June 1, 2022, before Sanders took office” and was signed at the same time “a lawsuit pends against the state for allegedly withholding information related to her travel requested under the FOIA,” ABC News reported.
Little Rock, AR attorney Matt Campbell, who filed the FOIA lawsuit against the state, told the AP the issue is larger than a lectern — and is instead a question of whether Sanders’ office is “incompetent” or engaged in “actual criminality.”
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Related video: Request for legislative audit leads to allegations of altered documents. (40/29 TV Ft Smith-Fayetteville)Duration 2:23 View on Watch
“Without an audit and without some more information, we don’t know whether this is a case of they’re too incompetent to be trusted with a state credit card because they don’t know what things should cost, or there’s actual criminality,” Campbell said told the AP. “Neither is a good answer but it’s enough of an issue that has to be answered.”
Former Arkansas State Police director Tom Mars — who served under Sanders’ father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee — "has also said that he has a client with firsthand knowledge that Sanders’ office interfered with Campbell’s open records requests,” the AP reports.
Per the AP:
In a letter he sent to Hickey after the lawmaker requested the audit, Mars said the client wishes to remain anonymous and is willing to give a confidential statement to legislative auditors and allow them to review relevant documents in the client’s possession. According to Mars’ letter, the interference includes the governor’s office altering an invoice from Beckett Events LLC, the Virginia firm listed as the seller of the lectern.
Hickey’s request for an audit has support from other state Republicans, including Legislative Joint Auditing Executive Committee co-chair Rep. Jimmy Gazaway.
“Given the fact that this has become a matter of public concern and that the governor says she welcomes an audit and hopes that legislators complete it without delay, yes, I think we should instruct audit staff to handle this matter,” Gazaway told the AP.
Sanders’ office maintains the blowback is “nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law,” as Sanders spokeswoman Alexa Henning told the AP.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sanders insisted “people want to manufacture a controversy where there isn’t one.”
"This is something the state’s been reimbursed for, and I think there are some people who are always going to be angry and always looking for something to complain about and that’s what they’re picking for right now,” she said.
Read the full report at the Associated Press.
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