The little-seen, $19,000 lectern at the center of a controversy in Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office was made available for viewing on Tuesday night — after a monthslong audit into how the lectern was procured and paid for found that Sanders’ staff potentially violated several state laws.
The governor’s office responded by characterizing the investigation as “a waste of taxpayer resources and time” and called the audit report “deeply flawed.”
“The facts outlined in the report demonstrate what the governor’s office said all along: we followed the law, and the state was fully reimbursed with private funds for the podium, at no cost to the taxpayers,” Sanders’ spokesperson Alexa Henning said in a statement.
A Republican state senator had requested the probe last year after the lectern’s high price tag sparked scrutiny and captured the national spotlight, including a jab from late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
The purchase only came to light when Matt Campbell, a Little Rock attorney and progressive blogger, called attention to Sanders’ office using a state-issued credit card in June 2023 to make a $19,029.25 payment to Beckett Events, a boutique event planning company whose owners are close with the governor.
Lawmakers questioned Sanders’ staff about the audit’s findings in a nearly three-hour hearing at the state Capitol on Tuesday, after the report was sent Monday to prosecuting attorneys.
