This is rich. Secretary of State Mark Martin, who a judge said yesterday has illegally hired outside counsel to do legal work for the office that the law says should be done by the attorney general, is advertising for a lawyer.

Martin’s staff already includes at least three lawyers and related legal staffers, plus an unprecedented budget for outside legal counsel, for now unusable for legal work. Martin has not used the attorney general, preferring to hire proven Republicans, such as Asa Hutchinson, the gubernatorial candidate, and Chad Pekron, who serves with Martin as a Republican appointee to the state Board of Election Commissioners. Martin’s fellow commissioner was hired at $200/hr. to help Martin fight release of public documents in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

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