It’s a convoluted tale to be sure but the gist is that Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders ostensibly bought a $20,000 podium from a pal and seems to be desperately doing everything she can to cover up the details from inquiring minds. And we’re not even sure she really spent the 20 grand on a podium.
Josh Marshall has a good ‘splainer of what has the stink of something rotten in Little Rock. It all began when Huckabee Sanders went to Paris as part of a trade delegation:
There’s a guy in Arkansas named Matt Campbell, a lawyer/blogger who seems to have mad FOIA skills. He publishes a blog called the Blue Hog Report. And save that link since this story almost entirely goes back to his on-going sleuthing. Campbell files a Freedom of Information Act request for the expense records for the trip. But what he gets back is very limited due to a law that allows the governor’s office to make exemptions to the state FOIA law. Campbell points out that these exemptions are only for security issues and it’s not at all clear why expense reports from a trade trip to Paris need to be withheld for the governor’s security. So now Campbell sues to get the records. Two days after Campbell sues Sanders calls a special session of the state legislature for, among other things, a dramatic revision of the state’s FOIA law.
Hmmm.
