By: Ainsley Platt, The Arkansas AdvocateThe head of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said the state won’t pay the lawyer hired by the corrections board to represent it in lawsuits against the governor.
Jim Hudson said in a letter Tuesday to the Department of Corrections that paying attorney Abtin Mehdizadegan $300,000 would violate state law and Arkansas’ constitution, saying that the board did not follow state procurement procedures.
The rejection is the latest setback for the Board of Corrections which has been embroiled in a legal fight for over two years with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders over who controls the state’s prison system. Disputes over how and whether to pay Mehdizadegan has been part of litigation that’s spawned from that power struggle…