Attorney General Gentner Drummond has filed a motion to withdraw from the ongoing ClassWallet lawsuit, following ClassWallet’s own move for dismissal. Drummond described the case as lacking merit and argued that it should never have proceeded.
“This lawsuit was baseless from the outset,” Drummond said. “ClassWallet has been incorrectly blamed for the failures of the Stitt administration, whose irresponsible appointments and lack of oversight led to questionable expenditures and processes surrounding $31 million in funds intended to help families with their educational expenses during the pandemic. Every credible review of this matter has made that clear. The only question now is why hardworking Oklahomans should have to continue funding these pointless and expensive lawsuits — tax dollars that could instead be invested in our schools and infrastructure.”
Audits conducted by both federal and state authorities found that mismanagement of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal relief funds was due to actions by state officials rather than by ClassWallet. These audits assigned responsibility for the misuse of funds directly to Governor Kevin Stitt’s administration.
Despite repeated findings attributing fault to state leadership, Governor Stitt’s office has continued legal action against ClassWallet at significant cost, according to Drummond.
“If the Governor were truly concerned about recovering misused dollars, he would hold accountable those actually responsible for the oversight, starting with his own office and his hand-picked Secretary of Education,” he stated. “Instead, he insists on spending excessive amounts of state dollars on lawsuits he has already been told he cannot win.”
Drummond maintains that dismissal is inevitable. “No one will be shocked when this case is dismissed,” he stated. “But unfortunately, the state of Oklahoma and its hardworking taxpayers will have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on this charade of a lawsuit.”