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Whom does Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita work for? It s difficult to tell.
The answer, obviously, should be Hoosiers. But the state s top law enforcement officer has done little to inspire trust that the interests of Indiana residents are his primary concern.
Rokita, a former Republican congressman and secretary of state, has been in office two months and already his tenure has brought bickering with a social media outlet and repeated unfounded claims of election fraud. We ve also learned he s been padding his taxpayer-funded $107,000 annual salary with side jobs at private companies he previously had not made public.
A financial disclosure form filed this week with the Indiana inspector general s office shows outside interests in three companies: business accelerator Acel360, transportation and logistics firm Merchandise Warehouse and Sonnet BioTherapeutics, a biotechnology company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The form lists Rokita as pharmaceutical development direc
The Indiana attorney general s office has reached an antitrust settlement with two Indianapolis construction companies who allegedly conspired to manipulate the bidding process on a $162,000 project.
According to court documents, Andrews Construction and Huffer Construction schemed together in 2017 on a build-out job at the new headquarters of the American Lawn Mower Company, a corporation based in Indianapolis.
Andrews Construction’s owner Scott Andrews offered Stuart Huffer, the owner of Huffer Construction, a kickback of $2,000 in exchange for submitting an inflated bid that would make Andrews Construction’s bid look competitive. The American Lawn Mower Company eventually hired Andrews Construction for $162,000 about $20,000 less than Huffer s bid.
AG Rokita declined to sign bipartisan letter condemning Capitol attack
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February 17, 2021
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, whose Valentine’s Day social media tweet alluding to a stolen election briefly drew a Twitter warning, declined weeks earlier to sign a nearly universal statement from attorneys general condemning the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
Separately, the Republican AG is facing calls for records surrounding his decision to remain employed as an adviser to a private company while also holding statewide elected office.
The letter condemning the Capitol attack from the nonpartisan National Association of Attorneys General was signed by 50 Republican and Democratic attorneys general of the American states and U.S. territories, but Indiana was one of three states whose AGs conspicuously did not sign. Louisiana and Montana were the others. All three of those states’ AGs are Republicans.
Attorneys general dishonor Indiana, law
Kent Hull
The framers of the 1851 Indiana Constitution were skeptical about lawyers, as evident in Article VII, Section 21, which provided, “Every person of good moral character, being a voter, shall be entitled to admission to practice law in all Courts of justice.”
Legal education and admission to the bar were unnecessary to practice law. Not until 1935 did the Indiana Supreme Court require a bar examination, thereby necessitating a law school education.
The Constitution did not mention an attorney general; subsequent legislation created the position.
The inauguration of Todd Rokita as attorney general may revive that earlier distrust of lawyers.