HELENA, Mont. (AP) – A state judicial panel is recommending that Montana’s Republican attorney general be suspended from practicing law for 90 days after publicly defying court orders and repeatedly attacking the integrity of judges in his defense of a law that allows the state’s Republican governor to directly serve lawsuits. vacancies.
The law in question was part of a nationwide effort by the Republican Party to create a more conservative judiciary and was ultimately upheld by the Montana Supreme Court.
Both sides have 30 days to object to Wednesday’s recommendation by the five-member Commission on Practice and another 30 days to respond to objections before the Supreme Court makes a decision. Three judges filed motions Thursday to recuse themselves from ruling on the sentence, meaning they would likely be replaced by state court judges.
If Austin Knudsen’s license is suspended, it could impact his ability to perform his job as attorney general, officials said. The state constitution requires the attorney general to be “an attorney in good standing who is admitted to the practice of law in Montana and who has been actively engaged in the active practice thereof for at least five years prior to the election.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Emilee Cantrell said the agency disagrees with the recommended sentence and plans to appeal. The office is instead supporting a 2022 special counsel investigative recommendation that suggested “this could have been handled privately, thereby avoiding a politically charged disagreement.” The judicial panel had rejected that recommendation.
In its findings, the panel said there is no doubt that the actions of the attorney general’s office “repeatedly, consistently and unequivocally” violated the rules of professional conduct and “arguably deserve the most serious consequences.”
They also rejected a suggestion that holding Knudsen accountable for his conduct could have further consequences, saying the sole focus was on whether his conduct violated the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct.
In court filings, Knudsen’s office had accused state Supreme Court justices of judicial misconduct, corruption, self-dealing, “factual impropriety” and having a conflict of interest.
The judicial panel noted that Knudsen acknowledged during a hearing earlier this month that many things should have been done differently in representing the Legislature on the scope of its subpoena powers.
“If I had this to do over again, I probably wouldn’t have allowed this kind of language – so sharp – to be used,” Knudsen testified. However, the panel also noted that Knudsen repeatedly refused to admit that his actions or language in legal proceedings violated the rules of professional conduct.
The issue dates back to 2021, when the Legislature was working on a law to abolish the Judicial Nomination Commission, which screened judicial applicants.
Lawmakers learned that a Supreme Court administrator was using state computers to question judges about legislation on behalf of the Montana Judges Association.
After the court administrator said she had deleted emails related to the survey, the Legislature subpoenaed the Department of Administration, which includes the state IT department, and received 5,000 emails from the administrator the next day . The court administrator only learned of the subpoena after the emails were turned over to the Legislature in April 2021.
The Supreme Court temporarily quashed the subpoena that same month — an order that the attorney general’s office said is “not recognized” — and in July 2021 ordered the emails returned immediately. The attorney general’s office did not return the emails until March and April 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Knudsen’s office defied the court order without asking for a delay, something the panel called “out of bounds.”
This isn’t the only controversy marking Knudsen’s nearly four years in office. He is seeking re-election.
He was accused of pressuring a Helena hospital over its refusal to administer a parasite drug to a COVID-19 patient, and his office also sided with a man who made an armed threat over a pandemic mask mandate. He tried to block three constitutional initiatives on the November ballot, recruited a token opponent for the June primary so he could raise more money, and was indicted after forcing the head of the Montana Highway Patrol to resign.
