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VietnameseGriffin: ‘[The Board] cannot pay its illegally retained counsel using taxpayers’ dollars’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after filing an amended complaint in his lawsuit against the Arkansas Board of Corrections for violating the Freedom of Information Act:
“This morning, I filed an amended complaint in my lawsuit against the Arkansas Board of Corrections for FOIA violations. Central to the lawsuit is the Board’s hiring of Abtin Mehdizadegan and Mehdizadegan’s law firm, Hall Booth Smith, P.C. The amended complaint asks the court to enjoin any public funds being used to pay Mehdizadegan or Hall Booth Smith because such a payment would be an illegal exaction. If any public funds have already been paid out, they should be returned to the State immediately, and the Board should refrain from issuing any payment using public funds moving forward.
“The law is very clear on the steps the Board should have taken to request approval to hire outside counsel. But it failed at every step, violating the FOIA, the statutory process for hiring outside counsel, and procurement law. Despite being warned of its failures, the Board chose and continues to choose not to follow the law, and therefore it cannot pay its illegally retained counsel using taxpayers’ dollars.”
To read a copy of the amended complaint, click here.
To download a PDF version of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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