JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. _ Taxpayer-paid staff working in former Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's office may have met with his political consultants more than a dozen times in the months before he launched his U.S. Senate campaign in 2017, according to a report released Thursday by State Auditor Nicole Galloway.
The 17-page audit _ issued with 444 pages of attachments _ also says employees did not follow office policy when they used personal email accounts, personal calendars and personal phones "to conduct official business, communicate and schedule meetings."
The report marks the conclusion of a yearlong probe by Galloway, a Democrat, into Hawley, a Republican who served for two years as the state's chief law enforcement officer. It is inconclusive as to whether Hawley, now a U.S. senator, broke any laws, which bar use of taxpayer resources for personal or political purposes."
