Ark. GOP approves audit of Sanders’s purchases

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 Governor 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.

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 posted copies on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter. Among them, a record of a $19,029.25 payment to Beckett Events LLC, 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.