As lawmakers shielded details of their legal spending last year, they spent an additional $35,000 in taxpayer money to fight efforts to make the information public.
HARRISBURG — In May, GOP lawmakers who control the state House and Senate hired the chair of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania to represent them in legal matters at $575 an hour.
“Where the taxpayers are footing the bill for the legal services, they are entitled to know the general nature of the services provided for the fees charged,” a panel of Commonwealth Court judges wrote following the state Supreme Court’s decision. The top-paid firm fighting the news organizations’ appeal: Philadelphia-based Kleinbard LLC. The company also happens to be one of the eight firms whose reason for being hired is completely redacted.
Spokespersons for House and Senate Republican leaders declined to answer questions about the newly redacted cases. They have previously defended redactions in legal documents in general by saying the blacked-out information, if revealed, would jeopardize legal strategy or reveal private legal matters that aren’t on a public court docket.
Almost all of that was signed off on by Senate Republicans. The biggest chunk — $119,471 — went to Kleinbard, one of their go-to firms on issues like elections and constitutional fights. Matt Haverstick, one of the firm’s lead lawyers, declined to comment.
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