Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin racked up close to $46,000 in total legal fees when her office last summer refused to release public records to reporters and later lost a court challenge. And it’s still unclear how she plans to pay for private attorney fees.

Recently released invoices show McGeachin was billed nearly $17,000 by a North Idaho attorney, who represented the lieutenant governor in a lawsuit brought by the Idaho Press Club. McGeachin, who’s running for governor, hired private representation after the Idaho attorney general’s office urged her to release the records.

For months, McGeachin has skirted questions on the costs she incurred from private representation and how she plans to pay for them. She has not answered whether her office’s budget would be used for those costs.

In recent weeks, the Idaho Statesman obtained two invoices from McGeachin’s office in response to a public records request for her private legal fees. One invoice is for $14,322.60, and the other is for $2,525. Both invoices were thoroughly redacted. Some information — such as due dates and the law office’s mailing address — appears to have been redacted from one document but not the other.

It’s unclear whether the additional $17,000 in costs from the private law firm will be paid for through her office. McGeachin’s office did not respond to follow-up questions from the Statesman about her plan to pay the legal fees or why the documents were redacted.

The Idaho Press Club won the July lawsuit that sought the release of records regarding McGeachin’s education task force, which was looking for indoctrination in Idaho schools. Reporters had requested responses to a Google Forms survey that McGeachin circulated earlier in the year soliciting public feedback, as well as additional records.

McGeachin’s office initially told reporters that redacting the records would cost anywhere from $560 to $1,500, and provided the records to the Idaho Capital Sun with comments redacted. McGeachin later released unredacted records to reporters after a judge ordered her to do so.

The recently released fees — from Sandpoint attorney D. Colton Boyles, of Boyles Law — are in addition to nearly $29,000 in legal costs for the Idaho Press Club’s attorney, which a judge mandated McGeachin pay. The lieutenant governor has asked that taxpayers fund the Idaho Press Club’s legal fees.

McGeachin asked the Idaho Legislature to approve a $29,000 supplemental budget request “due to unforeseen legal bills related to a lawsuit from the Idaho Press Club after the attorney general’s office failed to properly represent” her.

If approved, the appropriation would come out of the state’s general fund, which is funded primarily by income, sales and corporate tax collections.

McGeachin’s office originally requested $50,000 from the general fund but later reduced the budget request after receiving a bill from the Idaho Press Club’s attorney for $28,974. The lieutenant governor’s total budget is $183,100, and McGeachin said she may have to cut staff if the Idaho Press Club’s legal fees are pulled from that budget.

McGeachin released the invoices to the Legislative Services Office after lawmakers requested the information.

In a Jan. 31 letter to the Legislative Services Office, McGeachin wrote that the private attorney fees are not part of the supplemental request, and no taxpayer money has been spent on them.

During a Jan. 19 budget hearing, McGeachin said the private attorney fees weren’t part of her office’s 2023 budget request because she had not received the invoices before the budget was put together. McGeachin at the time said that her office received “some billing invoices” from Boyles “in late December.”

“That’s why it is not a part of the request, and nor may it be,” she said.

Five days later, McGeachin’s chief of staff, Jordan Watters, told the Statesman in an email that the lieutenant governor’s office received two invoices from Boyles on Nov. 9. Meanwhile, the first invoice from Boyles Law was dated July 20 and said it was “due on” Aug. 19.

Dates on the second invoice appear to have been redacted.

Budget requests are due to the governor’s budget-writing Division of Financial Management on Sept. 1.