The MeidasTouch Podcast - GOP Governor Huckabee Could Face CRIMINAL CHARGES Over FAKE Lectern Purchase

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas explains the LecternGate controversy on Arkansas that could lead to criminal charges against Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.  Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to https://RocketMoney.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new BMO VI Porter MasterCard is your ticket to more. More perks. More points. More flights. More of all the things you want in a travel rewards card. And then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO VI Porter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months.

Terms and conditions apply. Visit bmo.com slash viporter to learn more. What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0

delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer.

From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun, and make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today.

You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I'm Ben Micellis from the Midas Touch Network. Busted. MAGA Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas, has been caught in a major, major

political scandal that may not only lead to her being removed forcibly as the governor of Arkansas as things progress, she may indeed be arrested and charged with multiple felonies under state and federal law. This scandal is being referred to as lectern gate because it involves a very odd purchase made by the governor's office of a $19,000 lectern. But it turns out that the money doesn't seem like it was really intended for a lectern because the lectern itself wasn't $19,000. The lectern at most was $7,500 if it was real, but it seems like it was a fake. And then it seems like numerous documents were manipulated and tampered with to try to cover up where the money that was reportedly going to this lectern, where it was really going originally. Let's unfold Lectergate, shall we? So back in June of this summer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was seen partying in Paris with her friends, her friend Virginia Beckett and Virginia Beckett's friend Hannah Stone.

And Hannah Stone seems to have some connections with Sarah Huckabee Sanders as well. Hannah Stone was one of the organizers of the January 6th insurrection. And Beckett and Hannah Stone, after the Trump administration, Beckett started a new consulting firm called Beckett Events, which has nothing to do at all with lecterns or podiums or anything like that, but you had Beckett and Stone partying with Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Paris. Seems like it was a very expensive trip, and of course, it would be very inappropriate if, say, the state of Arkansas used taxpayer funds to fund this lavish trip in Paris by Virginia Beckett and Hannah Stone, wouldn't it be? So put that two aside for a moment. Enter Matt Campbell, a well-known blogger and lawyer in the Arkansas area in Little

Rock who's known for making public records requests and calling out corruption at all levels of government. Matt Campbell makes a Freedom of Information Act request under Arkansas's law back in June, around the same time when this lavish trip to Paris took place. And some documents are turned over. Lots of documents are withheld. But Matt Campbell starts looking at these, and he notices a very strange charge. Okay, Amazon, $230 here. Another payment to Amazon over here. A photo payment over here. Beckett Events, LLC, $19,029.25.

What could that be? And yes, we did see Virginia Beckett and Hannah Stone partying in Paris. What's this $19,000? Like any good Freedom of Information Act detective, Matt Campbell homed in on that amount and asked additional Freedom of Information Act requests. And what was the response by Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the governor's office? in September to try to change the Freedom of Information Act laws to try to prevent her and the governor's office from having to turn over travel expenses and other types of records that would be responsive to Matt Campbell's request. She wanted essentially to destroy Arkansas's Freedom of Information Act requests. And so then Matt Campbell went public even more.

He was already starting to post about it. And he said, do you want to know how things like Sarah Sanders inexplicably paid nearly $20,000 to Beckett Productions LLC in mid-June. Her anti-transparency bill destroying the FOIA laws in the state of Arkansas would prevent you from knowing that. Well, that got a lot of attention of media and others on a bipartisan basis. People were saying, what is this about? So as you started to dig deeper, it seems like documents were then being manufactured to try to engage in this cover-up. I mean, specifically, one of the things we see is an original invoice that was submitted by Beckett Events purportedly back in June for this podium. Now note, Beckett Events, new company, has nothing at all to do with podiums, lecterns, anything at all like that. But yet they're charging, they're not

middlemen in lectern acquisitions, yet there's a $19,029.25 invoice for a lectern that was produced. So then all the media, everyone focused, what's this lectern25 invoice for a lectern. That was produced. So then all the media, everyone focused, what's this lectern, what's this lectern? So then the governor's office tried to act like, well, here's the lectern that was purchased, and they showed it, and they claimed it was a Falcon lectern.

Falcon lecterns, if they are authentic, are $7,500. Note, the invoice is $19,029.25. So even if the lectern was $7,500, it doesn't account for the remaining significant amount of money there. But it also is a fake Falcon lectern. And the Falcon companies acknowledge this is not a real lectern. So this lectern, which claimed to cost $19,000 of Arkansas taxpayer dollars, actually seems to maybe be a few hundred bucks, no more than $5,000, probably a few hundred bucks, certainly not $19,000. Now, where does that $19,000 come from? Well, Arkansas, like many states, have certain kind of limits that create red flags before you require higher approval. Some of the other documents that Matt Campbell got in his public record requests, were certain inquiries about where the red flags would be

called upon. And it was a $20,000 limit. So that's why it was kept under $20,000 ultimately in this invoice. So a lot of red flags being raised, a lectern that seems to have cost a few hundred bucks, an invoice from Sarah Huckabee Sanders friends for $19,029 for it makes no sense. And then more records start emerging, some smoking gun records, in fact, that shows that these invoices may have been manipulated and tampered with and notations added after the fact. I wouldn't even say may. They were. This blew my mind when I found out. But did you know that over 80% of people have subscriptions that they've forgotten about? No, seriously, think about how many free trials you've subscribed to that you've probably never canceled.

That's why I'm such a big fan of Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills all in one place. Most people think that they're spending $80 on their subscriptions, when in reality, the number's closer to $200. When you're signed up for so many things like streaming services you use to watch one show or free trials for delivery that you don't use, it's so easy to lose track of what you're paying for. With Rocket Money, you can easily cancel the ones you don't want with just the press of a button. No more long hold times or

annoying emails with customer service. Rocket Money does all the work for you. Rocket Money can even negotiate to lower your bills for you by up to 20%. All you have to do is take a picture of your bill and Rocket Money takes care of the rest. Rocket Money also lets you monitor all your expenses in one place, recommends custom budgets based on your past spending, and they'll even send you notifications when you've reached your spending limits. Let's go. don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and manage your money the easy way by going to rocketmoney.com slash MidasTouch. That's rocketmoney.com slash MidasTouch. So here's an email from somebody in the administrative services in the state of Arkansas named Casey Canton,

who's writing to her higher-ups and others that says, good morning, James and Jason. The attached deposit was brought to me late yesterday. Mind you, this is being sent September 15th. So this is after Matt Campbell raised the issue, after people started focusing on this and people are like, where's this $19,000 lectern payment? What is this all about? The attached deposit was brought to me late yesterday afternoon from 9-14-23 from Laura Hamilton at the governor's office. This is a check from the Republican Party of Arkansas to reimburse the podium purchase in June 2023 for $19,029.25 on the state P cards. Pause right there so you see what's happening. The state of Arkansas GOP is now stepping in to reimburse the $19,000 payment to Beckett Events to try to cover it up. Laura was instructed for either of our office or herself to make a note on the original invoice

that it was, quote, to be reimbursed. Do you see that? So you have the administrative services manager saying that the state of Arkansas GOP is going to be reimbursing this now, and I've been instructed to manipulate and change the original invoice and write on it, quote, to be reimbursed. As you can see on the attachment, she made the note. She wrote to be reimbursed. I asked if she wanted to date the note and she stated that she was told not to date it, but just make the note that the invoice was to be reimbursed. I also told her that they would not be getting any appropriations back for this,

and she indicated that she already told Judd Deere the same thing, so they are aware. So you have Casey Canton making a contemporaneous email basically saying, we're being told to violate the law, that someone in my office has been told to go on an original document, tamper with it, write to be reimbursed, was told not to date that note to make it appear that the invoice was always going to be subject to reimbursement from the Arkansas GOP and not part of some cover-up so that Arkansas taxpayer money would be funneled to pay for Sarah Huckabee Sanders' friends. For what? Well, there was that trip to Paris, remember, back in June. So here is the QuickBooks invoice as well, the payment receipt rather. And here you have Beckett events and there you have

to be reimbursed. In other words, an original document was tampered with. That is a crime under federal law and Arkansas law. Just take a look. A person commits the offense of tampering with a public record if with the purpose of impairing the verity, legibility, or availability of a public record, he or she knowingly makes a false entry, inter-falsely alters any public record, or erases, obliterates, removes, destroys, or conceals a public record, and also the underlying crime of hiding the real purpose of sending $19,000 plus through an invoice for a lectern that's not a $19,000 lectern that's called wire fraud. And that is a major felony both under Arkansas state law

and federal law. So when you put all of these pieces together, what seems to have occurred here? What seems to have occurred here is that Sarah Huckabee Sanders was partying with her friends in June. Her friend Virginia Beckett and Hannah Stone in Paris in June were hanging out, having a very lavish time. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wanted to know how the red flags wouldn't be raised, so you keep it under $20,000. You have Beckett Events submit an invoice for just under $20,000, hoping that nobody will make public records requests or FOIA requests for it, but use

Arkansas taxpayer dollars to do that. In comes Matt Campbell, the blogger and attorney, makes the perfect public records request. In his diligence, he finds that charge, homes in on it. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tries to change the FOIA laws to try to block people knowing what it is. That raises more red flags than people who work for the General Administration Office in Arkansas are told to alter and manipulate the documents to make them appear that there's going to be a reimbursement on them from Arkansas's GOP from the very outset when that was not the intention. It was always intended, it appears, to use Arkansas taxpayer dollars to pay for potentially lavish trips or excesses by

Sarah Huckabee Sanders' friends in the ultimate sign of corruption. Now, some of the big news as well, though, on a bipartisan basis, people in Arkansas are getting very angry about this, as they should. You have a state senator, Jimmy Hickey Jr., who is well-respected out there, wrote to the chairman of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee about this. We could pull up this letter right here. Pursuant to the rules of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, I request one or more audits regarding the following matters. The purchase of the podium or lectern from Beckett Events, LLC for the use of the governor's office. And two, all matters involving the governor or the governor's office made confidential by Section 4A of the Act of the first extraordinary session of 2023, where Sarah

Huckabee Sanders changed the FOIA laws. Further, I request the Arkansas Legislative Audit develop procedures for reporting my request to above and any similar request in the future in compliance with existing laws in Section 5 of the Act. Thank you for your attention to this letter. One other person's name who comes up a lot when we talk about lectern gate is a lawyer by the name of Tom Mars, who is representing at least one whistleblower, maybe other whistleblowers in Arkansas. Tom Mars, Republican, former Republican, a Republican, was the head of the state police under Sarah Huckabee Sanders' dad, Mike Huckabee. And Tom Mars has been repeatedly posting on his social media that he believes there's been felonies committed, wire fraud and other major felonies, and that he's got all the smoking gun proof that he needs and that he will be providing to the appropriate authorities. And that Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Virginia Beckett and Hannah Stone all were involved in a criminal conspiracy together.

This legislative audit has been approved. It is now taking place. And so, folks, that is lecturing gate. making a payment of just under $20,000 to her friends for a purported lectern, when the lectern at most was $7,500, but likely it was far less than that. It was probably in the hundreds of dollars, if that. And ultimately, that money seems to have been transferred to her friends so that they were enjoying their time together and spending time together. Or at least it doesn't seem to be being used where it was supposed to be used. I'll let

you make any other inferences or connections from there. That's Lecter and Gate. Hit subscribe. We're on our way to 2 million subscribers thanks to your support. Check us out at patreon.com slash Midas Touch for more, if you want to help support the growth of this platform. Have a great one. Hey, Midas Mighty. Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas Touch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.