LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas attorney and blogger has refiled a lawsuit accusing the Arkansas State Police (ASP) of violating Arkansas's Freedom of Information Act (AFOIA) laws by redacting names on a flight manifest for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' travel to Europe— among other accusations.
Matthew Campbell, the attorney and blogger behind the Blue Hog Report, had originally filed the lawsuit on Sept. 5. According to court documents, he moved to dismiss the lawsuit because he contracted COVID-19 on Sept. 13 and couldn't attend a hearing scheduled for Sept. 14.
Campbell claims in the suit he first requested public records in June 2023 covering communications, documents, and expenditures relating to the governor's ASP security detail. ASP responded that releasing that information would violate the "safety and security of the Governor."
Information also requested by Campbell were records for ASP personnel travel to or from Europe in 2023 when Sanders made an overseas trade trip, including a stop in Paris in June.
The lawsuit says that documents were given in response but that in a spreadsheet related to plane usage ASP had "attempted to redact the names of passengers on Governor Sanders' flights" despite the fact those names aren't supposed to be redacted under the state's FOIA law.
Campbell argues that ASP's justification for redacting names of passengers on the flight manifests as a security risk is illogical because there was unredacted information freely given to Campbell by ASP, like the plane tail number and times and locations of departure, which could feasibly carry that justification.
"Absolutely no one could argue in good faith that knowing all of the details of the governor’s flight, down to the tail number of the plane and the time of departure, was not a violation of the 'statutory duty' to provide security for the Governor and her family, but merely knowing who else was on a flight that already occurred would be some huge security issue that precludes releasing that information."
On Sept. 8, three days after Campbell's original lawsuit was filed, Sanders announced a special session, with one of the focuses to pass legislation that would revise Arkansas's FOIA rules, claiming they were being "weaponized."
"It's a new low in Arkansas politics for some on the radical left to weaponize FOIA and put the governor's and her family's lives in danger," Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for Sanders, said in response to the lawsuit.
During the special session, there was bipartisan contention with the original bill which stated AFOIA would be amended to exempt the names of anyone who joins the governor on taxpayer-funded trips. After changes were made, an amended bill passed that allows the state to deny access to details about the governor's security and other "constitutional officers" who travel on the ASP plane. It also denied access to the cost of the trips.
Campbell said in a statement the changes to the law will make it nearly impossible to get records about any constitutional officers from the state police. "However, that change won't impact this suit, both because the original suit was filed before the law changed and because they didn't properly vote on the emergency clause, so the FOIA change won't take effect until December once the injunction is granted," Campbell said.
"The biggest takeaway that I want people to have, though, is that the head of Arkansas State Police knowingly broke the law by refusing to provide records, admitted to the legislature that the records were not exempt at the time he refused to provide them, and lied about what I had requested. That should be a huge deal to everyone."
When asked for comment, ASP Spokesperson Cindy Murphy said while they don't comment on pending litigation, she underscored Col. Hagar's testimony on Sept. 12 and 13 during the special session. "Listening to his testimony will help you put remarks mentioned in the lawsuit into context, which is critical," Murphy said. You can find the recordings from Col. Hagar's testimony here.
Murphy went on to reference a quote from his testimony: "My only responsibility, my only task, is to protect the governor and her family as it relates to this issue. So we don't care about information being embarrassing to the governor. She did not hire me to be her political consultant. We do not want to share information that's going to compromise security. That's the only thing that we're looking out for."
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