{"id":657,"date":"2007-12-16T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-16T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=657"},"modified":"2007-12-16T01:25:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-16T01:25:00","slug":"hucks-crush-of-illegal-record-use-of-tax-money-to-fund-mex-consulate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=657","title":{"rendered":"Hucks’ crush of illegal record & use of tax money to fund Mex. Consulate"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dec
\n14, 7:22 PM EST <\/span>Suit: Huckabee used funds to
\ncrush hard drives, win consulate <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

By JON GAMBRELL <\/span>
\nAssociated Press Writer<\/span><\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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LITTLE
\nROCK, Ark. (AP) — An amended lawsuit against Republican presidential hopeful
\nMike Huckabee claims he illegally used government funds to crush state computer
\nhard drives and aid the Mexican government to locate a consulate in Arkansas’
\ncapital city.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The suit against the former governor, refiled Friday in
\nPulaski County Circuit Court, comes as part of a Freedom of Information Act
\ncomplaint by Bella Vista resident Jim Parsons stemming from Huckabee’s last
\ndays in office. However, lawyers for Huckabee have said Parsons’ lawsuit
\nviolates the qualified immunity public servants are granted in the state’s
\nconstitution.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Huckabee used money from the Gov.’s Emergency Fund for a
\nseries of purchases before leaving office, including giving $10,000 to the
\ncity of Little Rock as it tried to bring a consulate there. Huckabee traveled
\nto Mexico in 2003 and has said hosting a consulate serving the mid-South from
\nArkansas would be an economic boon.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The last $13,000 of the fund went toward destroying hard
\ndrives used by the governor’s office at the state Capitol, the Gov.’s Mansion
\nin Little Rock, Huckabee’s Washington office and the hangar for the state
\npolice airplane on which the governor traveled.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

“Mike Huckabee treated the emergency appropriations
\nnot as an appropriation for emergencies … but rather as a ‘slush fund’ of
\nsorts, which he could use upon his whims for political purposes,” the
\nsuit alleges.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The lawsuit asks Huckabee to repay the spending with his
\nown money, as well as provide the state backup tapes that held some of the
\nfiles destroyed along with the hard drives. It also named current Gov. Mike
\nBeebe, asking him to turn over records from the backup tapes.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Huckabee, now a GOP front-runner in Iowa and South
\nCarolina, has defended destroying the hard drives, saying the discs contained
\nemployees’ or constituents’ Social Security numbers and credit card
\ninformation.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Parsons, a self-described political gadfly, has filed
\nother ethics complaints against Arkansas politicians. The state Ethics
\nCommission previously dismissed two complaints that Parsons filed against
\nHuckabee over the hard drives’ destruction.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Parsons said the timing of this complaint, about two and
\na half weeks before the Iowa caucuses, had nothing to do with politics.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

“I’m not so politically one party or the
\nother,” Parsons said. “I just go after what’s right and what’s
\nwrong.”<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Parsons’ new attorney in the case, Oscar Stilley of Fort
\nSmith, also is known as a gadfly for his anti-tax lawsuits and initiative
\nattempts. However, a panel of the state Supreme Court+ Committee on
\nProfessional Conduct decided Friday that Stilley committed “serious
\nmisconduct” in other incidents and issued an order to begin disbarment
\nproceedings.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Parsons said he didn’t know about Stilley’s hearing.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

“I don’t know how that will come out or anything
\nabout his case,” Parsons said.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a9 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
\nmaterial may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn
\nmore about our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dec 14, 7:22 PM EST Suit: Huckabee used funds to crush hard drives, win consulate By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press Writer     LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An amended lawsuit against Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee claims he illegally used government funds to crush state computer hard drives and aid the Mexican government to … Continue reading Hucks’ crush of illegal record & use of tax money to fund Mex. Consulate<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-presidential-candidates"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}