Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is facing his second lawsuit in less than a week, this time for alleged retaliatory actions against a former election official.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, the Secretary of State's office is accused of trying to influence elections and conspiring to make up a whistleblower complaint. The Secretary of State's office said it doesn't comment on pending litigation.
Attorneys for the plaintiff, former Director of Election Integrity Nick La Strada, said Monday that Hoskins fired La Strada after he objected to several actions from the Secretary's office, including not questioning using public funds to influence an election in St. Louis County.
La Strada, a Republican, is a former county clerk for Pettis County and served as the Director of Election Integrity beginning in January 2025 in the Secretary of State's office.
"We claim Nick was fired because he blew the whistle on what he believed to be violations of law, violations of policy, abuses of power, alteration of technical findings," attorney Dennis Egan said.
La Strada was not in attendance at the press conference as he is currently serving as a long-term elections observer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a position U.S. citizens hold through the state department's observer program.
The lawsuit states that in April 2025, La Strada emailed Hoskins as well as senior staff about the legality of using public funds for a mailer against Proposition B. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page is facing criminal charges over the mailer.
Proposition B, which St. Louis County voters rejected last year, would have given the county council the ability to fire department heads.
The measure failed 62% to 38%.
During a press conference on the lawsuit, Attorney Erin Vernon said instead of a review of the actions that La Strada believed to be illegal, La Strada saw his access to the statewide voter registration system revoked.
"When he asked the chief of staff of Secretary Hoskins who authorized the removal of his access, he received no answer," Vernon said.
A year later in April 2026, the lawsuit states La Strada heard staff members of the Secretary of State and State Auditor's office discuss creating a fake whistleblower submission over Missouri's statewide voter registration system.
The lawsuit states La Strada objected and brought up the actions to the office's General Counsel.
"As far as we know, those who were conspiring to break the law were never investigated," Vernon said.
That same month, La Strada objected to the Secretary of State's involvement over election results in Saline County after the local election authority certified the results of an election in Marshall.
The lawsuit states that after a complaint was submitted to the Secretary of State's office over the aggregation of write-in votes, the office conducted a retabulation of votes and instructed Marshall officials to change the winner of the election.
According to the lawsuit, La Strada expressed concerns to Hoskins and others within the office and said that "in plain terms, that the office had no authority to change a certified election result," and that only a court could do that.
The lawsuit says that La Strada was ignored.
The Secretary's office fired La Strada at the end of April.
"This was not an easy decision for Mr. La Strada. He is a loyal Republican 'til the very end. Except the one thing he will not put party above is fair and equal and safe elections for all. He couldn't be quiet," Vernon said.
This lawsuit is the second one Hoskins has faced in the past week. Five Missouri voters have sued Hoskins over his handling of a state referendum on the congressional redistricting map state lawmakers passed in 2025.
The proposed class-action lawsuit is seeking about $80 million, a maximum of $500 per member of the lawsuit, which would represent the over 160,000 registered Missouri voters whose signatures on the petition were verified by election authorities.
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