2023 McCurtain County, Oklahoma audio recording scandal

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The 2023 McCurtain County, Oklahoma, audio recording scandal was a political scandal in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, in which multiple county officials (Sheriff Kevin Clardy, Commissioner Mark Jennings, Investigator Alicia Manning, and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix) were revealed to have made controversial remarks in an audio recording released in April 2023. The previous month, the McCurtain Gazette-News filed a lawsuit against various county officials. The same day the paper filed suit, one of its reporters left a voice-activated audio recorder in the room after a county meeting and recorded county officials discussing various controversial topics such as lynching Black people, murdering McCurtain Gazette-News reporters, and assaulting county judges. The McCurtain Gazette-News's release of the audio a month after its recording led to national coverage of the scandal, calls from Governor Kevin Stitt for the officials to resign, and the start of an OSBI investigation. Mark Jennings, McCurtain...

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