The MeidasTouch Podcast - Huckabee Makes FINAL MOVE to Cover Up LECTERN FRAUD

Episode Date: April 13, 2024

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Arkansas Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders following the tactics of Trump by her stooge Attorney General write an opinion that she’s exempt from budgetary laws to cover up her LecternGate fraud. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/MEIDAS and use the code MEIDAS to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the MAGA Republican governor of Arkansas, is following the playbook of corruption that she learned from Donald Trump with respect to this independent legislative audit into lectern gate, which this independent audit's been going on for several months now. It's been delayed. We thought we were going to get the independent audit report in February. Then we were told March. Then as we were told, this report was going to be issued last week.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked for a delay. And now we are learning the reason for the delay. And it is right out of MAGA Playbook 101, where the same way Donald Trump had asked Bill Barr to try to get ahead of the Mueller report, we are seeing that right here with MAGA Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders asking her MAGA Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, asking her MAGA Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin to issue his report and findings that basically state that the governor is, this is an absurd argument, but this is what's in Tim Griffin's letter, that the governor is exempt from audits, that the governor is somehow exempt from being investigated by the legislature for financial fraud, that somehow the governor is free to do whatever he or she wants to do, and there could be no investigation or inquiry into their conduct. I want to go into this letter that the Attorney General Tim Griffin just issued, go over some of the key points.

Let me just remind you very briefly, catch you up on lectern gate for those new here to this scandal. Back in last June, through the diligent investigations of Matt Campbell, who is a lawyer and who Sarah Huckabee Sanders' best friend. And Virginia Beckett ran a company called Beckett Events, which was a new company formed right around that period in time. And then as Matt Campbell continued with his public records request and investigation. What the claim was, was that Sarah Huckabee Sanders had purchased using state funds. Let me repeat that. Using state funds, a lectern from her best friend's company, Beckett Events, which has

nothing to do with selling lecterns. So then people were saying, and give Matt Campbell all the credit for this, people were saying a $19,000 lectern, like, can we see who spends $19,000 in a lectern? Aren't conservatives supposed to be fiscally responsible? Can we see this lectern? Sarah Huckabee Sanders resisted. She eventually showed the media, allowed them to look at what she claimed to be an expensive falcon lectern. When you actually look at this, it is not a falcon lectern, but at most a falcon lectern costs $7,500,

maybe slightly more, but never more than that. This lectern that Sarah Huckabee Sanders was showing the media, maybe at most was $500 or $1,500. And then the lectern disappeared. Nobody saw it. So in order to simplify like what's going on here, what it seems that happened was in June, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her best friends were partying it up in Paris.

They were chilling, living the high life like Alina Haba did when she was in St. Bart's and partying. All of a sudden, nearly $20,000 goes to Huckabee Sanders' best friend. On further investigation, they try to claim once Huckabee Sanders is called out for giving her best friend. On further investigation, they try to claim, once Huckabee Sanders is called out for giving her best friend almost $20,000 of state funds, that it's for a lectern. Then the lectern disappears, and then Huckabee Sanders goes into cover-up mode. And then what we see through some of the emails and further public records requests because Matt Campbell was relentless, was that in internal emails from state employees in Arkansas, they were asked to accept reimbursement money after the fact from the Republican Party of Arkansas to basically cover up the fact that state funds were used to pay Beckett Events LLC.

And then what the state employees were asked to do by the governor's office, which they did, was to alter the invoices, alter the QuickBooks statements as well, and put a notation from the June purported invoice where it said to be reimbursed in handwriting and then not date that so that it would later look like, aha, this plan all along was for the Republican Party of Arkansas to reimburse the state funds that were used when that was never on the original documents. Now, manipulating documents in and of itself is tampering. That manipulation, that fabrication of state public records in and of itself could be considered a crime.

Not could be, it is, in my opinion, a crime. And so the independent state audit committee was assembled. They were looking into this. And that leads us to kind of the present moment of where we were at. Does this lectern exist? Was Sarah Huckabee Sanders just giving her friend right under the reporting limits where she didn't have to get extra approval, which would have been that 20,000. That's why you may be saying 19,000. That sounds like an oddly specific number right underneath the reporting limits. Was this all being done as a plan to basically launder money or just give

money to her friend state funds, then called out for it, pretended it's a lectern, the lectern disappeared, the coverup spirals out of control. Where's the lectern, the lectern disappeared, the cover-up spirals out of control. Where's the lectern? Where'd these funds go? What's this all about? And then remember the video we made last weekend where Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked for extra time. The extra time was so that this letter could take place. Did you know that traditional bedsheets can harbor more bacteria than a toilet seat? It could lead to acne, allergies, and stuffy noses. And it's just gross. Miracle-Made offers a whole line of self-cleaning antibacterial bedding, such as sheets, pillowcases, and comforters that prevent up to 99.7% of bacteria growth and require up to three times

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He's a conservative, but like a real conservative, not a MAGA. And he's been following this all. I believe he may even be affiliated with some of the whistleblowers involved. But this is what Tom Maher says. Per sources, Governor Sanders' request that Tim Griffin issue an AG opinion was the real reason for the delay in releasing the Lectern Gate audit findings, which won't be good for Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The audit report is now expected to be released on Monday. Remember when the Mueller report was coming out and then Bill Barr issued his view of what the Mueller report was going to

say? Same exact Trumpian MAGA playbook right here. As Jay Orsi goes regarding the letter from Tim Griffin, he goes, wow, just wow. On this AG opinion trying to cover up hashtag lectern gate, man, somebody should have been held back in third grade because reading comprehension was missed on this opinion. Who the hell does he think the state end is referring to? Constitutional officers maybe? Yeah, referring to the governor. Here's what Tim Griffin says. He goes, I'm writing in response to your request for my opinion, responding to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, right? This was her reason for delay to get the AG to try to cover up for her. Dear Governor Sanders, I'm writing in response to your request for my opinion about whether Arkansas's constitutional offices are generally subject to the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law, GABPL, and ACA Section 25-A-106.

You ask the following three questions. Are constitutional offices agencies within GABPL's general definition of agencies? If not, which section of the GABPL apply to constitutional offices? Are constitutional offices subject to requirements in ACA? Response. Constitutional offices are not agencies generally subject to the general accounting and budgetary procedures laws for four reasons. First, the General Assembly usually is explicit if it intends to subject constitutional offices to regulations, except for a few of its provisions, the GABPL does not explicitly apply to constitutional offices. It's a few more pages of that just kind of rambling thing. Essentially, what the attorney general opinion that Sarah Huckabee Sanders got is a lot like the arguments that Trump makes.

Immunity. You could do whatever you want to do. You're exempt. The way Trump goes, I take the government records. I put them in boxes. They become personal property. I can order SEAL Team 6 to do that. I have absolute immunity. I can say and do whatever I want. That's basically a version of what Tim Griffin's saying, that the laws, that the budgetary

procedures that were obviously violated here, it's all good because the governor's not bound by the law. However, as Jay Orsi points out, when you actually look at the law, 19-4-102 purpose, general policy, it is the policy of the state of Arkansas to A, maintain on a sound financial basis the state and all of its agencies, boards, commissions, departments, and institutions all refer to in this chapter as agencies unless otherwise necessary. The state. So somehow Sarah Huckabee Sanders believes that she is different from the state as Hadda B points out. Wait, wait, wait. Tim Griffin, MAGA Republican Attorney General, trying to cover up hashtag lectern gate for Sarah Huckabee. This is just

embarrassing at this point. Admit you screwed up, Governor. Stop trying to have everyone bend over backwards to protect you. Someone please get the national media involved. National media here. Hey, how are you? Goes on. Matt Campbell says, Sarah Sanders is tipping her hand on her plan to wiggle out of hashtag lectern gate. You can see in the AG opinion, she's going with quote, I bought the lectern in a sketchy way, but regular procurement rules don't apply to me. This argument doesn't help her. Let's do another thread. Thing is, everyone already acknowledged that the general procurement rules don't apply to Sanders.

That's never really been in doubt. It's also irrelevant on the issue here, though. Even if she doesn't have to follow state procurement rules, she cannot intentionally overpay for a lectern to send money to her friend. She can't pay for a lectern that doesn't exist and falsify public records. And she can't knowingly overpay for a lectern generally. Additionally, she can't buy something with state funds for the Arkansas GOP, nor can she dispose of purchased property however she chooses. None of this is impacted by Griffin's opinion on anything.

This is a Trump-style argument. Say something that sounds vaguely legal and authoritative, even though it's wholly irrelevant to the issues, and rely on loyal idiots to parrot it loudly in your defense. It is also hilarious that she's asking Griffin for an opinion now. She's already submitted her response to the report. If she wanted to rely on this opinion, she should have submitted it months ago. But this isn't about that. This is about trying to mislead you. Additionally, if there is a criminal investigation, as has been rumored, Griffin's opinion on procurement laws won't help Sanders at all there. That will come down entirely to what she actually ordered, what she received, what she paid,

and how. So really, this AG opinion is par for the course with Sanders and entirely predictable. Let's just hope the media folks talking about the report when it drops do actually reporting and don't act as uncritical stenographers for the governor's office. Once again, media here. I hear you, Matt Campbell, and I know what you're saying. Matt Campbell also says, also Jay referring to Orsi, who I shared for you before, I shared with you before, raises a good point here. Sarah and Tim's argument renders the state meaningless in the statute she's asked about. A basic rule of statutory construction is to interpret it so that no word is superfluous. Tim must have skipped that day in law school.

Cindy Wilson writes, our state AG is doing the same for Sarah Huckabee with lectern gate that U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr did for Donald Trump with the Mueller report. Arkansas blog writes, in other words, Tiny Tim says anybody who works for the governor can buy whatever for whatever, lie about it and suffer no consequences. Trumpism in full flower in dark Kansas, in dark Kansas, dark Kansas, dark Kansas, enabled by corruption, friendly legal officer, do right rule inoperable. And then Tom Mars says, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an FBI investigation, but if an investigation is ongoing, the feds will LOL at Tim Griffin's AG opinion. As at Blue Hog Report points out, his opinion about the applicability of state law is no defense to an indictment for wire fraud. What I do know is that A, I publicly said last year I would make a referral to federal law enforcement authorities.

B, I followed through on that promise in a matter of days. And C, the feds conduct criminal investigations in secret and don't mess around. And we don't mess around here at the Midas Touch Network. These videos have garnered millions of views, and I hope you're using these videos as a tool to make sure you are pressuring state legislators, pressuring others to make sure that accountability takes place in Arkansas and in this country.

Thank you for watching. Hit subscribe. That's the latest update, folks, on Lecterdate. I'm Ben Micellis. Have a wonderful day. Enough! Send it to the big house, not the White House. Get the new exclusive tees, mugs, and stickers right now at store.midastouch.com.

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