Gov. Kevin Stitt is calling for the resignations of four officials in southeast Oklahoma after a newspaper's audio recording apparently captured some of them talking of knowing hit men and complaining about two of the paper's journalists.
FILE - Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt delivers his State of the State address in Oklahoma City, on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022. Stitt has signed a bill prohibiting the use of nonbinary gender markers on state birth certificates. The first-term Republican signed the bill Tuesday, April 26, 2022.
“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County," Stitt said in a statement. “There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma, especially by those that serve to represent the community through their respective office.”following a March 6 county commission meeting in which Clardy, Manning and Jennings appear to discuss reporters Bruce and Chris Willingham.
Bruce Willingham, the longtime publisher of the McCurtain Gazette-News, said the recording was made March 6 when he left a voice-activated recorder inside the room after a county commissioner's meeting because he suspected the group was continuing to conduct county business after the meeting had ended in violation of the state's Open Meeting Act. Chris Willingham, a reporter at the paper, is Bruce Willingham's son.
Bruce Willingham said he has also turned over his audio recordings to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office and added he has had several conversations with federal investigators. Senat said under Oklahoma law, the recording would be legal if it were obtained in a place where the officials being recorded did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
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