Sarah Huckabee Sanders Accused Of Altering FOIA Requests From Journalist - Ring of Fire

A whistleblower in Arkansas, through his lawyer, is accusing governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of misconduct by claiming, among other things, that her administration altered his FOIA request seeking documents from the government. The lawyer says that the whistleblower is prepared to bring these claims to the Arkansas statehouse if they will allow him to testify. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

An attorney for a blogger in the state of Arkansas alleges that his client, who is now, uh, according to the lawyer, a whistleblower, has evidence that Sarah Huckabee Sanders administration, she is of course the governor of Arkansas for some reason, uh, that they altered a FOIA request that he had submitted to the state seeking information about her travel records, her expenditures, things that, by the way, are supposed to be open records. But this blogger, according to his lawyer, was not only denied these requests, but the individual who, uh, uh, got the request, literally changed his request and then denied it. Let me read you this. Uh, the lawyer, by the way, is a man named Tim, uh, Tom Mars, excuse me. And he sent a letter to State Senator Jimmy Hickey, Republican, uh, offering testimony from the whistleblower and documents to show the governor's office improperly altered and withheld public records related to its spending. Quote, the letter says, Mars client can provide clear and convincing evidence that Sanders's office altered and withheld documents That Little Rock attorney and blogger Matt Campbell of the Blue Hog report requested in recent weeks, Campbell has been scrutinizing and reporting Sanders use of the Arkansas, Arkansas State Police airplane for in-state travel, as well as her office's spending habits and purchase of the lectern from an out-of-state events company with a state issued credit card that lectern, by the way, that Sarah Huckabee Sanders bought was $19,000.

Seems a bit pricey for just a little podium that you stand out to talk to people, but hey, I'm not in politics, right? At least not in electoral politics. But, um, as somebody who's actually had to buy equipment for multiple different types of TV studios over the last 20 years, I can tell you that $19,000 for lectern seems way overpriced. So, you know, take that for what it's worth, but it does continue. Uh, the whistleblower accused, the governor's communications director, Alexa Henning, of altering a FOIA accessible document to change the meaning and directed state officials not to share the original with the blogger, and also withheld other documents that showed Amazon purchases by Sanders office. Now, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, her administration in recent weeks has of course been working to shield her records from the state. You can't see where she's traveling. You can't see who she's traveling with. You can't know where she's going. You can't know what she's spending money on. And all of this flies in the face of Arkansas's current state laws. So the governor's office has actually been pushing the state legislature controlled by Republicans to change the laws so that she doesn't have

To, to, uh, divulge any of that. And, uh, uh, I, I may have actually misspoke at the beginning where I said they altered his FOIA request, they didn't alter the FOIA request. I'm sorry. They altered the information that he was requesting and then just denied it all. Anyway, so that's what the whistleblower alleges. And the lawyer, as he says, like, Hey, my client's ready to come in front of Congress and tell everybody everything that happened. We got the documents, we've got receipts to prove all of this. You just gotta give us that forum. And again, considering the fact that these are Republicans who, you know, probably want to protect the Republican governor, I don't know that this is gonna, uh, be something that comes to light.