Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin reported that nongovernmental sources paid for travel-related expenses totaling more than $48,000 in 2023, including a trip to South Korea, on his annual financial disclosure report.
The Republican attorney general reported that Attorney General Alliance paid for more than $41,000 of these expenses from national meetings and training, including food, lodging and travel last year.
The Attorney General Alliance (AGA) serves as a bipartisan forum where attorneys general work in cooperation to share ideas, build relationships and foster enforcement through meetings, panels, working groups and social activities, according to the alliance’s website.
The deadline for elected and other high-ranking officials throughout state government to file their annual statement of financial interest with the secretary of state’s office was Wednesday.
On their annual financial disclosure reports, state officials are required to list each nongovernmental source of payment for their expenses for food, lodging or travel which bears a relationship to their office when they appear in their official capacity and the expenses incurred exceed $150.
The expenses paid by the Attorney General Alliance for Griffin included $14,784.95 for expenses from Oct. 28-Nov. 4; $13,000 for reimbursement pre-pay in July/August with his wife; $11,416.80 from June 19-22 with his wife; and $2,178.88 from Aug. 9-11, according to his statement of financial interest for 2023.
These trips included those to the “AGA DMZ & Seoul, South Korea Trade and Security Delegation with Korea Foundation”; “2024 AGA 80th Anniversary Normandy D-Day Honor Delegation”; Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif; and Seattle, according to Griffin.
He said the 80th anniversary trip to Normandy, for which the reimbursement was prepaid, won’t be until this summer.
Griffin said historically U.S. senators and congressmen have been invited to Korea, but state attorneys general have been invited to South Korea in recent years.
He said he was of four state attorneys general and several staff members for attorneys general on the Attorney General Alliance trade and security trip to South Korea with the Korea Foundation.
“It was incredibly beneficial and [at] no cost to the taxpayers at all,” Griffin said.
He said a big part of Korean investment in the United States is battery production, and lithium is an essential element in batteries for electric vehicles.
Oil giant Exxon and Canadian company Standard Lithium are invested in south Arkansas projects to separate lithium from brine pumped from deep underground.
But Griffin said the people in South Korea, who he met on the trip, were not aware of Arkansas’ connection to lithium and they are now.
An intellectual property attorney who was on the trip to South Korea is coming to Arkansas next week to meet with officials in Arkansas, he said.
On his report for 2023, Griffin also reported the Republican Attorneys General Association paid $2,927.97 in expenses from national meetings and travel, including food, lodging and travel, from Feb. 12-14 in New Orleans; the Federalist Society paid $747.95 in expenses from meetings, including food, lodging and travel from Sept. 28-30 in New Orleans; and the Center for Law and Policy paid $580.79 in expenses from national meetings and travel, including food, lodging and travel, from Oct. 12-13 in Washington, D.C..
He also reported that National Association of Attorneys General paid $1,179.40 in expenses from national meetings and training, including food, lodging and travel, from April 18-19, and $492 from Dec. 5-6; and the Citizens for Accountable Government Inc. paid $935.76 in expenses from meetings, including food, lodging and travel, from Aug. 16-17 in Columbia, S.C..
Griffin said the expenses paid by the National Association for Attorneys General were for trips to Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
On their reports, state officials are required to list the source, date, description and a reasonable estimate of the fair market value of each gift of more than $100 received by them or their spouse and each gift of more than $250 received by their dependent children.
Griffin also reported the receipt of gifts valued at $7,876 for the use of a suite at Razorback Stadium on Nov. 11 from Jim and Merritt Dyke, and tickets valued at $370 for a football game from Ryan Holder on Dec. 10. The tickets valued at $370 were for a Dallas Cowboys football game, said Jeff LeMaster, a spokesman for the attorney general.
Lieutenant Gov. Leslie Rutledge, reported that nongovernmental sources paid for more than $10,000 of her travel-related expenses in 2023.
The Republican lieutenant governor reported the Republican State Leadership Committee in Washington, D.C. paid $6,049.61 in expenses from national meetings and training, including food, lodging and travel, in June; $2,833.42 in January; and $1,234.28 in August.
Asked about where the trips were to, the lieutenant governor’s deputy chief of staff, Sandy Hall, said Thursday in a written statement “Lieutenant Governor Rutledge submitted all of the required information for the Statement of Financial Interest.”
For 2023, House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, reported the State Legislative Leaders Foundation paid $2,190.35 in expenses for program cost for the National Speakers Conference from Sept. 6-8. The conference was held in Salt Lake City, said House Chief of Staff Roy Ragland.
Shepherd also reported gifts of tickets to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville versus Duke University basketball game valued at $400 on Nov. 29 from James F. Phillips Jr., and air transportation valued at $590 from Alex Lieblong of Conway to Del Rio, Texas, on July 23. Lieblong is chairman of the Arkansas Racing Commission.
Republican state Treasurer Larry Walther, who is the former secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration, reported the State Financial Officers Foundation paid $1,887.72 in expenses for meetings from Aug. 28-31. He also reported the foundation paid $1,348.76 in expenses for meetings from Aug. 28-31. The foundation hosted its national meeting and economic summit in Plano, Texas, on Aug. 28-31, according to its website.
Republican Secretary of State John Thurston, State Auditor Dennis Milligan and Land Commissioner Tommy Land did not report any non-governmental sources of payment for food, lodging and travel or gifts in their filings for 2023.
An annual financial disclosure report for Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, for 2023 was not posted on the secretary of state’s office website as of late Thursday afternoon.