# Bart Hester Senator, Arkansas Senate; President Pro Tempore. Per Brady's 4/7/2025 draft letter to legislators, Hester's office was the first scheduled meeting confirmed for the April 2025 Berman trip ("So far, I have a meeting set up for him with President Pro Temp/Sen. Hester sometime Monday morning"). Per Spadoni's 4/11/2025 schedule, the Hester meeting was set for Tuesday April 15 at 8:00 to 8:30 AM. Hester does not appear elsewhere in the materials and does not appear on the May 16 contact list xlsx (suggesting the contact list was assembled for follow-up thank-you notes for those who actually met with Berman/Young, and Hester may not have appeared on that list for reasons not documented). The materials do not document Hester-side correspondence or any subsequent Israel Bonds action. ## R2 residual sub-batches: December 2024 Consulate-General-of-Israel-paid Israel trip The 5/18/2025 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Morning News Update article captured in Melissa Corrigan's Deleted-Items folder (per [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]]) documents Hester's disclosure: "Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, disclosed earlier this month that the Consulate General of Israel in Houston paid $6,500 of his expenses for an educational trip to Israel in December." The December 2024 Israel trip falls between Hester's documented Election Day window (when Brady was orchestrating the Berman/Young Arkansas trip Hester may or may not have attended; Hester does not appear on the Spadoni Nov 5 planner page) and Hester's documented 4/15/2025 8:00 AM Capitol office meeting with Berman/Young per [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]]. The Consulate General of Israel in Houston funded Hester's trip; "educational" framing is the disclosure language, the substantive itinerary is not specified in the article excerpt. Hester is the documented Arkansas legislator most directly connected to both Israeli-government-funded travel (December 2024) and DCI institutional-sales meetings on Arkansas soil (April 2025). Whether the December 2024 trip influenced Hester's subsequent 4/15/2025 reception of the Berman/Young pitch or any other legislative action is not knowable from the documentary record alone. ## Evidence > "So far, I have a meeting set up for him with President Pro Temp/Sen. Hester sometime Monday morning (tbd) and State Treasurer Thurston Tuesday morning at 11:30." > Brady draft letter for Milligan signature, April 7, 2025.pdf p.1, 4/7/2025 > "8:00 - 8:30 Sen. Bart Hester, President Pro Tempore" > Wendy Spadoni schedule to Lawrence Berman, April 11, 2025 - 4.pdf p.2, 4/11/2025 ## Cross-References [[wendy-spadoni]] [[jason-brady]] Auditor's-office schedulers [[lawrence-berman]] [[brad-young]] DCI representatives Hester was scheduled to meet [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] concept page [[ben-gilmore]] Arkansas State Senator (R-Crossett); co-disclosed Israel-funded trip in the same 5/18/2025 article (Combat Hate Foundation paid $10,000 for June trip) [[auditor-foia-r1-spadoni]] [[auditor-foia-r2-residual]] source pages