Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders hits back at claims her $19,000 lectern bought with taxpayer funds broke state law as she posts a photo saying ‘come get it’

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office has denied allegations of violating state law after purchasing a nearly $20,000 lectern using taxpayer funds.

An audit requested by lawmakers, which was released yesterday, cited several potential violations, including paying for the lectern before it was delivered and handling records related to the purchase.

But Sanders has dismissed all such questions about the podium. Her office called the audit’s findings ‘deeply flawed’ and ‘a waste of taxpayer resources and time’.

‘No laws were broken,’ they said in a response submitted to the report.

So does Sanders posted a video at X with the lectern bearing the messages ‘My Name Is Podium’ and ‘Come and Take It’ shortly after the review was published.

The blue, wood-paneled lectern was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25 from Beckett Events LLC, a Virginia-based company run by political consultant and lobbyist Virginia Beckett.

According to a breakdown from Beckett Events included in the audit, total costs included $11,575 for the lectern, $2,500 for a ‘consultant’s fee’ and $2,200 for the road case.

The price also included shipping, handling and a credit card processing fee.

The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders’ office has called the use of the state’s credit card an accounting error.

Her office said it received the rostrum in August. The item has not been seen at Sanders’ public events.

Arkansas lawmakers last year approved the request to review the purchase of the pulpit, which had been the focus of statewide investigations, including the cost.

The campaign for Sanders, who served as press secretary to former President Donald Trump and has been considered a potential candidate to be his running mate, has drawn attention from late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to The New York Times.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones’ office said it had received the audit and would review it, but said it would not comment further.

Auditors said in the report that they were unable to determine whether the lectern’s cost was reasonable.

The report said the three foreign suppliers involved in its purchase did not respond to numerous requests by auditors for information about the lectern.

Sanders’ office and auditors disputed whether the governor and other constitutional officials are subject to the procurement and property rules she is accused of violating.

The audit said the governor’s office did not follow the steps set out in state law for agencies to dispose of state property.

“(Arkansas Legislative Audit) maintains that the podium and road case remain state property,” the audit said.

But Sanders’ office denied that the procurement and property laws cited apply only to state agencies, not constitutional officers.

A non-binding legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin at the request of Sanders and issued last week made the same argument.

“I am perplexed to see that a significant portion of the Legislative Review’s analysis rests on the erroneous conclusion that the governor’s office is a ‘state agency’ for purposes of certain statutes,” Griffin said Monday in a written statement.

The speaker’s purchase emerged last year, just as Sanders called on lawmakers to broadly limit public access to records about her administration.

The purchase was originally revealed by Matt Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has a long history of open records requests that have exposed questionable spending and other misdeeds by elected officials.

The audit said Sanders’ office potentially illegally tampered with public records when the words “to be reimbursed” were added the original invoice for the podium only after the state GOP paid for it in September.

But Sanders’ office disputed that finding, calling handwritten notes on invoices “a common accounting practice.”

The audit further said the office potentially violated the law when a shipping document related to the podium was shredded by a member of Sanders’ staff. Sanders’ office said the document, the ‘bill of lading’, was accidentally misplaced and a replacement was provided to auditors when it was discovered.

House Minority Leader Tippi McCullough, a Little Rock Democrat who sits on the audit committee, said she wants more answers from the governor’s office about the findings.

“We’ve got to get to the bottom of it and we’ve got to make sure people are held accountable and things are right going forward,” McCullough said.

Republican Senate President Bart Hester said he was not concerned by the audit’s findings, saying the legislative audit was wrong to apply the purchase and property laws to the governor’s office. Hester said “there could have been a cleaner process” in handling records.

“More importantly, it shows there was not a bomb,” Hester said.

The audit was issued days after lawmakers began a legislative session focused on the state budget.

The audit is the first of two that Hickey requested lawmakers approve last year.

The committee also approved another audit that looked at travel and security records that Sanders retroactively protected from public release under the changes to the state’s open records law.