Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri—one of the Big Lie’s most prominent supporters—appears to have a big lie of his own on his hands. On Tuesday, Cole County, Missouri, Judge Jon Beetem ruled that the Republican broke the law in hiding communications that would’ve damaged his 2018 Senate campaign. The request for Hawley’s communications, which were apparently concealed off of a government server while Hawley was serving as Missouri attorney general, was submitted on behalf of his opponent, then-Sen. Claire McCaskill.
“The requested documents showed—at a minimum—a questionable use of government resources, demonstrated by the fact that their eventual public release helped trigger an investigation by the Secretary of State’s Office into the potential misuse of government funds to support [Hawley’s] Senate campaign,” Beetem added. Hawley’s office failed to respond to records requests, concealed documents, and even used private email addresses to hide correspondences. All in the name of trying to save face for Hawley, who’s proven himself since the Jan. 6 insurrection to be a wildly embarrassing figure.
Beetem found that it would be appropriate to enforce the maximum penalty against Hawley. That penalty is paying up $12,000 for violating Sunshine Law requests in 2017 and 2018 and paying the plaintiff’s attorney fees.
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This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Hawley ran for election in 2018, not 2020.
