February 2, 2022

Indiana attorney general billing Texas trip to taxpayers

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's office confirmed the trip was being paid for with official funds and that he drove, but didn’t immediately release details about the cost. -  FILE: Alan Mbathi/IPB News

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's office confirmed the trip was being paid for with official funds and that he drove, but didn’t immediately release details about the cost.

FILE: Alan Mbathi/IPB News

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita took a state-paid trip to the U.S-Mexican border last week and attended a Donald Trump rally along the way.

Rokita’s office confirmed the trip was being paid for with official funds and that he drove, but didn’t immediately release details about the cost, The (Fort Wayne) Journal-Gazette reported.

The Republican attorney general’s trip was announced Thursday on his office’s Facebook page, which said he was headed to the border to investigate the impact of illegal immigration. Rokita joined several other Republican state attorneys general for a “border security briefing” and he was among those interviewed Friday by a Fox Business program host.

Rokita drove about six hours north for Trump’s rally Saturday in Conroe, Texas, during which the former president mentioned Rokita as “another man who has done a fantastic job.”

On Tuesday, Rokita sent a campaign fundraising email highlighting Trump’s praise at the rally.

Indiana Democratic Party spokesman Drew Anderson criticized Rokita as “going to great lengths – even wasting taxpayer dollars – to win the appeal of the former president and a divisive set of culture wars that do nothing but divide Hoosier families across the state.”

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