Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/gene-jarussi/)
A former state legislator from Shepherd who was jailed last year for refusing to cooperate with authorities regarding his involvement in a political corruption scandal has finally paid a $70,000 penalty for campaign finance violations. (more…) Continue Reading →
HELENA — Allegations that a high-profile state-appointed attorney broke some of the same campaign practices laws he was hired to prosecute have been dropped. Deputy Commissioner of Political Practices Kirsten Madsen, in a 19-page order issued Friday, dismissed a complaint filed late last year against Billings attorney Gene Jarussi by Republican political consultant Jake Eaton. (more…) Continue Reading →
If Montanans don’t “own” their representatives in Congress and the state Legislature, someone else will, a University of Montana law professor and dark money opponent said Monday night. (more…) Continue Reading →
Gene Jarussi, a Billings lawyer and the state special attorney general in charge of litigating a series of lawsuits against political candidates for illegal campaign activities, is now himself facing allegations of political misconduct. (more…) Continue Reading →
The former state legislator who was jailed on Tuesday for contempt of court reportedly refused to cooperate with authorities regarding his involvement in a political corruption scandal, calling the court case against him “a political game.” Wesley Prouse, of Shepherd, who will turn 49 on Thursday, was in jail and could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but the Billings lawyer who prosecuted several Republican legislative candidates involved in the so-called dark-money cases gave an account of the events that landed Prouse in jail. (more…) Continue Reading →
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Jake Eaton. A District Court judge has agreed to impose sanctions on a Billings lawyer accused of attempting to obstruct an investigation into a so-called dark money group by the state Commissioner of Political Practices. The lawyer, Emily Jones, was accused of trying to intimidate potential witnesses by claiming that they could get into legal trouble for disclosing information about a defunct political consulting firm owned by her husband, Jake Eaton, a former executive director of the Montana Republican Party. (more…) Continue Reading →
The city of Billings has been ordered to pay just under $2 million in back wages and penalties to 142 active-duty and retired police officers in a wage dispute going back to 2009. District Court Judge Brenda Gilbert of Livingston, in an order issued Thursday, said the city must also pay roughly $650,000 in attorneys’ fees and nearly $126,000 in incidental costs associated with the years-long lawsuit. (more…) Continue Reading →
Former Montana House member Daniel Kennedy of Laurel has agreed to pay a $19,599 fine for accepting illegal campaign contributions during the Republican primary in 2010. In a settlement reached last Thursday and posted Tuesday on the Montana commissioner of political practices’ website, Kennedy said “I did not know at the time but now understand” that the package of campaign services he received came from the National Right to Work organization. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last week I was feeling dispirited about the propaganda flowing into Montana by way of TV ads attacking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This week, I feel an acorn of hope. No, I still don’t know who has been buying those ads, other than the nonhuman face of Protect America’s Consumers. And the ads are still running in abundance, hour after hour, on cable news channels in a few targeted states, including Montana. (more…) Continue Reading →
HELENA — It took a jury of six men and six women four hours Friday to find that Bozeman Republican lawmaker Art Wittich illegally coordinated with non-profit third-party political groups during his 2010 primary election campaign. (more…) Continue Reading →
