Date set for Lt. Gov. McGeachin’s contempt hearing
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Rebecca Boone, Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin will face a hearing next week on whether she should be held in contempt of court for failing to comply with a judge’s order in a public records lawsuit.
Fourth District Judge Steven Hippler ordered the contempt hearing set for Oct. 13, according to court records. The Idaho Press Club last month asked that the lieutenant governor face civil contempt proceedings after they said she failed to comply with a judge’s order in the lawsuit and stalled rather than immediately releasing the public records as ordered.
Neither McGeachin nor her chief of staff Jordan Watters have responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.
McGeachin was sued by the Idaho Press Club in July after several journalists said she wrongly denied public record requests for materials relating to her new Education Task Force. The task force was tasked with investigating alleged “indoctrination” in the state’s public school system, something McGeachin said was necessary to “protect our young people from the scourge of critical race theory, socialism, communism and Marxism.”
McGeachin lost the case, and eventually released the documents late last month.