Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office has denied accusations that she violated state laws after purchasing a nearly $20,000 lectern with taxpayer funds.
An audit requested by lawmakers and released yesterday cited several possible legal violations, including paying for the lectern before its delivery and handling records related to the purchase.
But Sanders has dismissed all such questions at the lectern. His office called the audit findings “deeply flawed” and a “waste of taxpayer time and resources.”
“No laws were violated,” they said in a response filed with the report.
Sanders too posted a video in X with the lectern with the messages ‘My name is podium’ and ‘Come and take it’ shortly after the audit was launched.
The blue-paneled and wood lectern was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from Beckett Events LLC, a Virginia-based company run by political consultant and lobbyist Virginia Beckett.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office has denied accusations of violating state laws after purchasing a nearly $20,000 lectern with taxpayer funds.
The blue-paneled and wood lectern was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from Beckett Events LLC, a Virginia-based company run by political consultant and lobbyist Virginia Beckett.
Sanders also posted a video on X showing the lectern with the messages “Come and take it” shortly after the audit was released.
According to a breakdown from Beckett Events that was included in the audit, the total cost included $11,575 for the lectern, $2,500 for ‘consulting fees’ and $2,200 for the road case.
The cost also includes shipping, delivery and credit card processing fee.
The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders’ office called the use of the state credit card an accounting error.
His office said he received the lectern in August. The article has not been seen at Sanders’ public events.
Last year, Arkansas lawmakers approved a request to review the purchase of the lectern, which had been the focus of national scrutiny, including over its cost.
The lectern for Sanders, who was former President Donald Trump’s press secretary and has been widely viewed as a potential candidate to be his running mate, has drawn attention from late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to The New York Times.
Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones’ office said it had received the audit and would review it, but said it would have no further comment.
Auditors said in the report that they could not determine whether the cost of the lectern was reasonable.
The report says the three out-of-state suppliers involved in its purchase did not respond to numerous requests for information about the lectern from auditors.
Sanders’ office and auditors questioned whether the governor and other constitutional officials are subject to the purchasing and property rules she is accused of violating.
The audit said the governor’s office did not follow steps set out in state law for agencies to dispose of state property.
“(The Arkansas legislative audit) maintains that the podium and highway case remain state property,” the audit said.
The lectern stands in the corner of the governor’s conference room at the state Capitol, Sept. 26, 2023.
The short video also included a message that read: ‘My name is Podium.’
But Sanders’ office disputed that the purchasing and property laws cited only apply to state agencies, not constitutional officials.
A non-binding legal opinion by Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin requested by Sanders and issued last week made the same argument.
“I am perplexed to see that a significant part of the Legislative Audit analysis is based on the erroneous conclusion that the governor’s office is a ‘state agency’ for purposes of certain statutes,” Griffin said Monday in a written statement.
The lectern purchase emerged last year just as Sanders was urging lawmakers to broadly limit public access to records about his administration.
The purchase was initially discovered by Matt Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has a long history of open records requests that have uncovered questionable spending and other misdeeds by elected officials.
The audit said Sanders’ office potentially illegally manipulated public records when the words “to be reimbursed” were added to the original invoice for the lectern only after the state Republican Party paid for it in September.
But Sanders’ office disputed that conclusion, calling handwritten notes on invoices “a common accounting practice.”
The audit also said the office potentially violated the law when a Sanders staff member shredded a shipping document related to the lectern. Sanders’ office said the document, the ‘bill of lading,’ was inadvertently lost and that a replacement was provided to auditors when it was discovered.
The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders’ office called the use of the state credit card an accounting error.
Auditors said in the report that they could not determine whether the cost of the lectern was reasonable.
The audit said Sanders’ office potentially illegally manipulated public records when the words “to be reimbursed” were added to the lectern’s original bill only after the state Republican Party paid it in September.
House Minority Leader Tippi McCullough, a Little Rock Democrat who sits on the audit committee, said she wants more answers from the governor’s office about the findings.
“We need to get to the bottom of it and make sure that people are held accountable and that everything goes well in the future,” McCullough said.
Republican Senate President Bart Hester said he was not concerned about the audit’s findings and said the legislative audit erred in applying procurement and property laws to the governor’s office. Hester said there “could have been a cleaner process” in handling records.
“More importantly, it proves there was no bomb,” Hester said.
The audit was issued days after lawmakers began a legislative session focused on the state budget.
The audit is the first of two that Hickey requested lawmakers approve last year.
The committee also approved another audit looking at travel and security records that Sanders retroactively shielded from public disclosure under changes to the state’s open records law.
