State legislators have approved a request to allow the Bureau of Legislative Research to hire outside counsel to deal with requests from unnamed federal investigators who want access to lawmakers’ records.
The request was approved at an Arkansas Legislative Council Executive Subcommittee meeting Thursday. Arkansas Legislative Council then reviewed the report Friday.
“We have been generally notified that we may be approached for confidential working papers of members,” said Marty Garrity, director of the Bureau of Legislative Research, in an interview Friday.
The hiring is related to “ongoing investigations” from “federal entities” related to lawmakers.
Garrity said this was the first time she had made the request. She said she didn’t have a budget, did not know when the hiring would occur or who would be employed.
She said she could not say who was involved in the investigations or which federal entities were investigating.
“Unpublished memoranda, working papers, and correspondence” of lawmakers are exempt under the state Freedom of Information Act, according to the law.
The request comes after federal indictments of two former lawmakers — Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, and Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale.
Ecclesia College President Oren Paris III of Springdale is accused of paying kickbacks to Woods while Woods was a legislator. Woods, in turn, paid then-Rep. Micah Neal in some cases, according to the indictment. Neal pleaded guilty to public corruption charges Jan. 4.
Paris passed the kickback payments through Randell Shelton Jr., a consultant from Alma, a business partner Paris hired on behalf of the college, according to the indictment. The college is not named in the indictment, but it says Paris is the president of a nonprofit operating a college in Springdale.
Attorneys for Woods, Paris and Shelton have entered not-guilty pleas on behalf of their clients.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.