New emails intensify need for 'full blown audit' into Arkansas gov’s $19,000 lectern: report

10 October 2023

Just days after The Associated Press reported that an Arkansas state GOP senator sought an audit of Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the news outlet has obtained "new public records" intensifies questions regarding her purchase of a $19,000 lectern using a government credit card earlier this year.

Per AP, the records specifically amplify questions around when the governor's "office planned to use Republican Party funds to reimburse the state for" for the lectern.

An email regarding a "reimbursement note was among dozens of documents released to The Associated Press on Monday under a Freedom of Information Act request related to the lectern," according to the report.

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The news outlet notes "the Arkansas GOP paid for the lectern in September, but the words 'to be reimbursed' were only added later to the original invoice, records released this week show. The undated reimbursement note adds to weeks of scrutiny over the purchase, which has dominated political talk in Arkansas."

Hickey told AP "that the email 'further indicates the need for a full blown audit to get all the facts' but declined to comment further."

The report notes, "Tom Mars, an attorney, confirmed Tuesday that the note is the example of a public record about the purchase being altered that he referenced in a letter to Hickey. Mars has said he has a client willing to give a confidential statement to lawmakers who has firsthand knowledge that Sanders' office interfered with open records requests."

AP reports:

The custom blue and wood-paneled lectern was bought using a state credit card in June for $19,029.25, significantly higher than prices listed online for other lecterns. The Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders’ office has called the use of a state credit card for the lectern an accounting error. Sanders’ office said it received the lectern in August.

The news outlet also notes:

Laura Hamilton, executive assistant and office manager for Sanders, added the note after being instructed that she or the agency that handles state purchasing should put it on the original invoice, according to the email released Monday. The Sept. 15 email written by Department of Transformation and Shared Services employee Cassie Cantlon to her superiors doesn’t say who instructed Hamilton.

Canton wrote in the email, "I asked if she wanted to date the note and she stated that she was told not to date it, but to just make the note that the invoice was to be reimbursed."

When the Hickey requested the audit last week, he told the news outlet, "From my experience, where we're at with this particular thing is we need to allow legislative audit go in. 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 senator "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.'"

Sanders is currently "pushing to 'overhaul the state's expansive public records law' at the same time 'a lawsuit pends against the state for allegedly withholding information related to her travel requested under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act [FOIA]," according to ABC News.

AP notes "A legislative panel is expected to vote this week on a lawmaker’s request for an audit of the lectern's purchase."

The Associated Press' full report is available at this link.

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