A long budget impasse and partisan standoffs dominated the Pa. legislature in 2023

Spotlight PA sorted through thousands of heavily redacted documents to reveal how the Pennsylvania legislature spends taxpayer dollars on private lawyers.

The mutually beneficial system, entirely legal, enriches the campaigns of Pa. lawmakers, who in turn hire firms for all types of legal matters — and all paid for by taxpayers.

A review of thousands of pages of documents shows the cases ranged from public records fights to secret personnel problems to attempts to overturn the presidential election.