VIDEO | Rep. Joshua Penner exposes the AG’s “thumb” on small business (Amendment 2161 to Senate Bill 5925)
The common person is being placed directly under the thumb of the Attorney General if Senate Bill 5925 passes without protection for the innocent.
Rep. Joshua Penner, R-Orting, took to the House floor to fight for Amendment 2161, a measure designed to ensure that any person or entity that prevails against a state investigative demand is entitled to recover their legal costs and attorney fees. Without this amendment, Penner argues that the state is creating an upside down system where citizens are forced to go through the extraordinary process of proving their innocence instead of merely defending it.
The refusal of the majority party to adopt a right to cure means business owners have no opportunity to fix perceived wrongs before the state hammers them with legal demands.
Penner highlights the hypocrisy of granting superhuman powers to 800 different kings throughout Washington when the Attorney General’s Office has already been fined by judges for a cavalier attitude in previous cases. If the state is allowed to be wrong without consequence while the private citizen is bankrupted by a successful defense, then the system is fundamentally broken.
 - https://joshuapenner.houserepublicans.wa.gov/2026/03/06/video-rep-joshua-penner-exposes-the-ags-thumb-on-small-business-amendment-2161-to-senate-bill-5925/){kind=link}