LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A whistleblower is alleging the office of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders "altered" and "withheld" certain documents requested through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
These allegations come from a letter sent by attorney Tom Mars to Sen. Jimmy Hickey Jr. (R-Texarkana), who has asked for an investigation into the purchase of a nearly $19,000 lectern by the governor's office.
Hickey made the request Sept. 27 to the state's Legislative Joint Auditing Committee after records and emails were posted online by blogger and attorney Matt Campbell. Among those records included a lectern that was purchased from Beckett Events LLC for $18,475, which was later reimbursed by the Republican Party of Arkansas.
In the letter sent to Hickey, Mars said he is representing an anonymous client who reportedly "can provide clear and convincing evidence" that Sanders' office "altered" and "withheld" documents.
Mars claimed these documents provided by the whistleblower "will substantiate my client's firsthand knowledge of how certain persons in the Governor’s Office, including the Governor’s Communications Director, interfered with the production of non-exempt FOIA documents TSS intended to produce to attorney Matt Campbell."
The attorney alleges that officials altered a non-exempt document "to give it a different meaning," removed parts of non-exempt email chains, and withheld other non-exempt documents that included some of Gov. Sanders' Amazon purchases.
The whistleblower also claims that certain persons within the Governor's Office directed the lawyer of the state's Department Transformation and Shared Services to deliver a flash drive to "Governor's Office with TSS's proposed responses and thereafter returning the sanitized version to TSS on a flash drive."
Mars alleges that this flash drive was used for the "purpose of concealing that the Governor's Office had altered an invoice from Beckett Events LLC and deliberately omitted from the production of responsive documents a number of documents that were not even arguably exempt from the FOIA or subject to any legal privilege."
Alexa Henning, who is the spokesperson for Gov. Sanders, said she "welcomes the audit and encourages legislators to complete it without delay."
Henning said the state was reimbursed for lectern with "private funding raised for the inauguration" and labeled the online discussions regarding the purchase as "nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left wing activists."
The governor on Tuesday, Oct. 3 claimed the concerns regarding the purchase and allegations were nothing more than "manufacturing a controversy where there isn't one."
Mars said his client could give "confidential" statement to the legislative auditors and provide the relevant documents.