{"id":81069,"date":"2025-04-30T09:54:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T17:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/04\/30\/kentucky-auditor-says-democrats-medical-marijuana-investigation-records-requests-are-intimidation-tactics\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T19:46:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T03:46:42","slug":"kentucky-auditor-says-democrats-medical-marijuana-investigation-records-requests-are-intimidation-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/04\/30\/kentucky-auditor-says-democrats-medical-marijuana-investigation-records-requests-are-intimidation-tactics\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Auditor Says Democrats\u2019 Medical Marijuana Investigation Records Requests Are \u2018Intimidation Tactics\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could be a thin-skinned public official who shows resistance or expresses outrage when your office is expected to produce records, but it tends to undermine your credibility.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern<\/strong><\/p>\n

Republican State Auditor Allison Ball is calling five open records requests from a Kentucky Democratic Party official \u201can attempt to intimidate me\u201d from investigating how the state\u2019s Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC)\u00a0processed license applications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ball, who has previously clashed with the Beshear administration over her office\u2019s investigations, issued a statement Monday that said the day after she announced the investigation into OMC earlier this month, Kentucky Democrats \u201csent five Open Records Act requests to my office in what can only be described as an attempt to intimidate me from continuing the investigation.\u201d However, the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP) denied that the requests were related to Ball\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

Ball said a Finance and Administration Cabinet official sent similar open records requests after her office announced investigations into the Cabinet for Health and Family Services in recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame that parties would seek to weaponize the Open Records Act, an important transparency tool, as a political weapon,\u201d Ball said. \u201cBecause I believe in the importance of transparency, I have responded to the KDP\u2019s requests in full, just as I did to the Finance Cabinet requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cKentucky should rest assured that these intimidation tactics will not work. I will continue to carry out the job that Kentuckians elected me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the Kentucky Open Records Act, members of the public may request records from public agencies within the state.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Democratic Party spokesperson Nat Turner said in a statement to the Kentucky Lantern that Ball \u201cis trying to manufacture partisan drama, and what she is alleging is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe requests in question were not related to her audit; they were for records related to grievances, personal appeals, travel records and her use of taxpayer money to attend a religious leadership conference,\u201d Turner said. \u201cTransparency is important and Auditor Ball has a responsibility to be accountable to Kentuckians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joy Markland, a spokesperson for Ball, shared copies of the requests made by the Democrats and responses of the auditor\u2019s office. The records, dated April 18, match the requests Turner described. In a search for the records, the auditor\u2019s office found no records of grievances from staff members filed this year and provided records related to travel, personal appeals and contracts entered by the office.<\/p>\n

Amye Bensenhaver, a retired Kentucky assistant attorney general and co-founder and co-director of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition, said \u201call is fair in love and open records.\u201d The state law is \u201cintended to be almost blind to who is asking and why they\u2019re asking,\u201d with some limitations on requests made for commercial reasons, she added.<\/p>\n

Ball\u2019s accusation against the state Democratic party is also \u201cweaponizing the law,\u201d Bensenhaver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, you could be a thin-skinned public official who shows resistance or expresses outrage when your office is expected to produce records, but it tends to undermine your credibility when you\u2019re seeking records from another public agency,\u201d Bensenhaver said.<\/p>\n

Some political staffers look for information to use in campaign messaging through open record requests. Ahead of the 2023 governor\u2019s race, the office of then Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron ruled Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear\u2019s administration violated the Kentucky Open Records Act when denying part of a request from the Republican Party of Kentucky. Cameron later became the Republican nominee and was defeated by Beshear that fall.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Kentucky Lantern.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Bipartisan Congressional Lawmakers File Bills To Seal Federal Marijuana Records And Assist States In Facilitating Expungements<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Kentucky Auditor Says Democrats\u2019 Medical Marijuana Investigation Records Requests Are \u2018Intimidation Tactics\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Kentucky Auditor Says Democrats\u2019 Medical Marijuana Investigation Records Requests Are \u2018Intimidation Tactics\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou could be a thin-skinned public official who shows resistance or expresses outrage when your office is expected to produce records, but it tends to undermine your credibility.\u201d By McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern Republican State Auditor Allison Ball is calling five open records requests from a Kentucky Democratic Party officialContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81070,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81069\/revisions\/81070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}