OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — On Friday, The Frontier posted a report involving the Governor and payments for gaming lawsuits. Fees from all the lawsuits total out to more than $1.9 million from 2020 to June 2023.
“Some of that $1.9 million figure includes that $600,000 fee, that one lawsuit, but it also includes those other suits,” said Clifton Adcock, a reporter at The Frontier in Tulsa.
Last week, News 4 reported that Governor Kevin Stitt’s office turned to three private law firms for legal aid located in Washington DC, Georgia, and Oklahoma City.
Those numbers total out to almost $600,000 as of June 2023.
The Frontier says to find out the total number of legal fees from 2020 to now, anyone can look up state vendor records on OklahomaState.OpenGov.com.
“You can you can see on there where it’s listed as tribal gaming compliance funds and you can see those funds being transferred then to some of these private attorneys as well to the governor’s general counsel for legal purposes as well,” said Adcock.
Last week, News 4 asked the Senate President Pro Tem about the funds that were taken out of the tribal gaming compliance fund.
“It’s not what we set up for this process, whether it is legal or not. That will be a question for the attorney general and others to look into. It’s definitely not the process that was agreed to by the speaker, the governor and myself,” said Greg Treat, the Senate President Pro Tem.
“If the governor has a beef with the tribes, he needs to be talking to them over a table, not in a courtroom. And he needs to include the legislature in this process,” said Andy Fugate, State Rep, D-Del City.
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Clifton Adcock from The Frontier says research on legal fees in the lawsuits isn’t stopping.
“I think there’s going to be more. You know, the the Attorney General said he’s looking into it and depending on what he finds and what he decides, you know, that could very well be a game changer. And, you know, depending on what he decides,” said Adcock.
We reached out to the Governor’s office for a comment on the legal fees since 2020, but didn’t hear back.
