DEMAND FOR RETRACTION AND RELEASE OF RECORDED INTERVIEW

April 15, 2010             HAND DELIVERED

On Thursday April 8, 2010, Sean Murphy of the Associated Press came to my office
and asked to speak about some rumors “they” had heard about militias. He said
“they” had heard that there were some legislators who were considering filing
legislation about ‘the militia’. He was very persistent about trying to get
comments from me about militias and asked if I knew anything about that or heard
anything about that. I told him unequivocally that I knew nothing about that
and had not heard anyone talk about or request a legislator address this issue
in any way. We then talked about state sovereignty issues and the liberal
interpretation of the “Commerce Clause” in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S.
Constitution.

I was surprised to learn of the article that appeared in The Oklahoman and other
media outlets on Monday, April 12, 2010 that attributed to me a statement I
never made. The statement attributed to me was not in quotation marks and the
interview of April 8 was not recorded to my knowledge. My office has been
inundated with inquiries about this false statement.

Tuesday, April 13, Sean Murphy came by my office and asked to speak with me. He
said he wanted to apologize if the article had caused me or my legislative
assistant any problems. I told him that he got it terribly wrong and reminded
him that I didn’t know anything about an interest and never said I was
considering filing legislation related to militia. He then made a statement
that stories are sometimes edited and that can alter the intent of the
interviewee. He then said he wanted to get it right and asked if he could
record our conversation. I agreed and we did another interview. I expected to
see a corrected article to follow.

I am demanding a retraction and that the recording from the second interview be
released.