LecternGate

[Synthaholic]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is in some deep doo-doo. She could be arrested and charged with any number of charges over this. And what is 'this'? The short answer:

Ark. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to face GOP-led audit over $19K lectern​

Arkansas Republicans on Thursday approved an audit of their governor’s purchases after a blogger’s open-records requests unleashed a political storm that has resulted in claims about the state altering public documents.

At the center of the controversy: a $19,000 lectern for Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

What started with raised eyebrows over a hefty price tag has given rise to questions about the state’s handling of public information requests. Now, a Republican legislative panel will audit the lectern purchase, as well as how Sanders’s office handles open-records requests.

In a statement to The Washington Post, a spokesperson for Sanders said the governor’s office welcomes the audit, calling the situation “nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the legislature has passed and the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas.”

Yet questions about the timing of the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursing Sanders’s office for the lectern have led to scrutiny of the purchase — including from some in the governor’s political party.

 

[Synthaholic]

 

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[Lemmi]

If you're buying a lectern for use by government officials for the foreseeable future you should get the best one out there should you not? I don't see the problem here.

 

[Synthaholic]

And The Onion for the win!

 

[Synthaholic]

If you're buying a lectern for use by government officials for the foreseeable future you should get the best one out there should you not? I don't see the problem here.

I can see that.

Perhaps you should look into the story, so that you will have some basic facts.

 

[okfine]

Ugh. Sarah Sanders. Ugh. Ugh

Hey, and by the way, why aren't you using that new lectern?

 

[whitehall]

Who the hell is Ricky Davila?

 

[BULLDOG]

If you're buying a lectern for use by government officials for the foreseeable future you should get the best one out there should you not? I don't see the problem here.

$19,000.00 for a lectern? You're kidding, right?

 

[Synthaholic]

There is no $19k lectern. Just $19k in funneled money.

There are laws against this.

 

[Synthaholic]

$19,000.00 for a lectern? You're kidding, right?

No, $19,000 for a FAKE lectern! Big difference.

 

[Synthaholic]

How did the controversy start?

In June, Arkansas blogger and attorney Matthew Campbell began requesting public records pertaining to the governor’s security and travel expenses. Over the next several months, he received some records, but most of his queries were met with denials stating the documents were confidential because they could include sensitive details that would jeopardize Sanders’s security, Campbell told The Post. That led him to file a lawsuit Sept. 6, claiming violations of the state’s Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

Two days later, the governor called a legislative session to address tax cuts and updates to the state’s FOIA laws, claiming new restrictions were needed to protect her and her family. The move was criticized and decried by opponents, including several Republicans, as an “assault on our republic.”

As a result, Campbell went back to the documents he’d received and on Sept. 11 posted copies on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Among them, a record of a $19,029.25 payment to Beckett Events, a Virginia-based events company founded by a Republican political consultant and lobbyist.




The “weird item,” Campbell said, prompted him to file more records requests — which would ultimately show the payment was made for a lectern.

 

[Lemmi]

$19,000.00 for a lectern? You're kidding, right?

Probably has built in WiFi and security cameras. Have you priced many lecterns lately?

 

[Synthaholic]

Campbell said he got an anonymous tip that included the Beckett Events invoice without the reimbursement note. That was going to be the invoice copy provided to Campbell after his FOIA request, until it was allegedly modified by the governor’s office with the handwritten note, the tipster had claimed.

In Arkansas, tampering with public records is a Class D felony punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

In September, a whistleblower — a former state agency employee — came forward, alleging that the governor’s office had altered public records.

Tom Mars, an attorney representing the whistleblower, said his client has “more than a dozen documents” showing the lectern purchase “violated every rule” in Arkansas’s purchasing manual. The whistleblower also claims that state employees were directed to alert the governor’s office about incoming FOIA requests.

 

[Lord Long Rod]

Has anyone speaking at a lectern ever been blown by a chick hiding inside it? You know, like in “Police Academy”?

 

[Synthaholic]

Has anyone speaking at a lectern ever been blown by a chick hiding inside it? You know, like in “Police Academy”?

Maybe Sarah has.

 

[BULLDOG]

Probably has built in WiFi and security cameras. Have you priced many lecterns lately?

I have a security light with wifi and a security camera. $19.86 at Walmart.