{"id":22244,"date":"2018-04-20T17:36:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T23:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=22244"},"modified":"2018-04-20T17:36:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T23:36:53","slug":"political-practices-complaint-against-jarussi-is-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/04\/political-practices-complaint-against-jarussi-is-dismissed\/","title":{"rendered":"Political practices complaint against Jarussi is dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jarussi\"<\/a>

Gene Jarussi, seen here during a political corruption trial involving former state Sen. Art Wittich in 2016, was himself the target of a campaign practices complaint, which has been dismissed.<\/p><\/div>\n

HELENA\u00a0\u2014 Allegations that a high-profile state-appointed attorney broke some of the same campaign practices laws he was hired to prosecute have been dropped.<\/p>\n

Deputy Commissioner of Political Practices Kirsten Madsen, in a 19-page order issued Friday, dismissed a\u00a0complaint filed late last year\u00a0<\/a>against Billings attorney Gene Jarussi by Republican political consultant Jake Eaton.<\/p>\n

Since his appointment by former Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl in 2015, Jarussi has served as a state special attorney general in charge of prosecuting\u00a0a series of high-profile lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0against candidates and political groups accused of illegal campaign activities.<\/p>\n

In a complaint filed in November 2017, Jake Eaton, a consultant with the Billings-based\u00a0Political Company<\/a>, accused Jarussi and his wife, Karen, of illegally coordinating with Billings Democratic\u00a0Rep. Jessica Karjala’<\/a>s 2016 re-election campaign. Eaton claimed the Jarussis facilitated \u201celectioneering communication\u201d that benefited Karjala\u2019s campaign while Karen Jarussi was \u201cacting as a paid agent\u201d of Karjala\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/a>

Jake Eaton<\/p><\/div>\n

Eaton called on Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan to remove Jarussi from ongoing litigation involving the office, and he also called on Mangan to recuse himself from the complaint and to appoint a Republican lawyer to handle the investigation. Mangan did not remove Jarussi from any pending litigation he was working on on behalf of the commissioners office, and he refused to comment on the complaint per his office\u2019s policy against talking about ongoing investigations or litigation.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint dismissal issued Friday, Mangan did recuse himself from the portion of the complaint involving Gene Jarussi, and appointed Kristen Madsen, a lawyer with the Montana Department of Justice\u2019s\u00a0Agency Legal Services Bureau, to handle the matter. In a 19-page order, Madsen said there was no evidence to support Eaton\u2019s claim that Jarussi violated state campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving duly considered the matters raised in the Complaint concerning the individual conduct of Mr. Jarussi, and having completed a review and investigation thereof, this Deputy Commissioner hereby holds and determines, under the above stated reasoning, that there is no evidence of a campaign practice violation, and certainly none\u00a0sufficient to justify a civil adjudication against Mr. Jarussi as complained of in this Matter,\u201d Madsen wrote.<\/p>\n

Jarussi was traveling to his farm in south central Montana when contacted by Montana Free Press and had not had a chance to read the full decision. However, Jarussi said he always tried to follow the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I tried to be careful not to violate the law, the rules. I didn\u2019t think I had violated the rules. I felt I complied,\u201d Jarussi said. \u201cAnd if I had violated the rules, I\u2019m not above the law, and I should be held accountable, too. But I really felt like I was OK because I really tried to be very careful about following the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eaton said the fact that Jarussi admitted to working against Karjala\u2019s\u00a0Republican challenger, Robert Saunders, was \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cases are, by their nature, political, and they require at least the appearance of impartiality and fairness,\u201d Eaton said. \u201cHow can we have that when somebody is simultaneously prosecuting one political party and actively working to defeat them in elections? How can anybody believe that\u2019s fair?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>On Thursday, a day before Eaton\u2019s complaint was dismissed, a group of more than 30 Republican lawmakers submitted a two-page letter to Mangan, calling on the commissioner to remove Jarussi from any active cases involving the office.<\/p>\n

The letter, which carried the official state seal and was printed on \u201cMontana State Legislature\u201d letterhead, cited Eaton\u2019s complaint against Jarussi as part of the basis for why they were calling for his removal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake, Mr. Jarussi deserves a thorough investigation that will ultimately determine his guilt or innocence,\u201d the letter stated in part. \u201cHowever, one thing is abundantly clear from this complaint: Mr. Jarussi\u2019s behavior was highly inappropriate, especially considering that he was simultaneously acting as a Special Attorney General for the prosecuting cases that involve similar actions as those he himself is alleged to have committed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A draft version of the letter circulated among Republican lawmakers last week by Republican Senate Leadership staffer Lindsey Singer, contained a version of the document that, according to the document\u2019s properties, was drafted by Eaton.<\/p>\n

Eaton said he played a role in drafting the letter, but denied that he was the letter\u2019s author.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, yes, I assisted in the effort,\u201d Eaton said when asked about his role in drafting the letter.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the letter was initiated by Republican leadership, or whether Eaton drafted the letter and then sought-out the support of Republican lawmakers, Eaton had this to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 33 Republican legislators who were very concerned that we have a commissioner of political practices who thinks it\u2019s OK to have a partisan hack lawyer out there persecuting his political opponents while committing campaign finance violations,\u201d Eaton said.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff<\/a>

Jeff Mangan<\/p><\/div>\n

In a response issued to members of the media Friday morning, Mangan said the COPP does not comment on open, ongoing investigations.\u00a0 In an uncharacteristically terse statement, Mangan said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a regrettable letter, not signed by any member whose name appears on the letter, not printed on any official letterhead the Commissioner\u2019s Office is familiar with, hand delivered by a political consultant with her business card attached and was apparently delivered to the media at or around the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mangan went on to add, \u201cit is incumbent on the COPP determine such a correspondence is not intended to assert improper political influence on an independent, non-partisan government agency. Montana law restricts the commissioner from \u2018participating in political activity,\u2019 including partisan pressure and influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mangan said any official reply to the letter would be made to the \u201calleged signatories, professional, personally signed, not through the press, and certainly not through a paid, political communications consultant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen, R-Culbertson, did not return a call seeking comment on the letter. Calls to other signatories of the letter also were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Singer, the Helena political consultant who circulated the letter for signatures, confirmed that her participation related to the letter was in her capacity as a Senate majority aide, a position paid for by the state.<\/p>\n

Gene and Karen Jarussi denied Eaton\u2019s allegations from the start, and said his complaint against them was politically motivated.<\/p>\n

At the time the complaint was filed, Eaton was a witness in a\u00a0lawsuit against the Montana Growth Network<\/a>, a \u201cdark money\u201d political group accused of failing to report and disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars it spent in Montana\u2019s 2012 elections. Dark money groups are organizations who spend money on influencing elections but don\u2019t have to disclose the source of their funding.<\/p>\n

Eaton\u2019s former firm, 47 North Communications, provided consulting services to Montana Growth Network during the time in question, and Eaton was named as a witness in the case.<\/p>\n

Last July,\u00a0a judge sanctioned Eaton\u2019s wife<\/a>, Billings attorney Emily Jones, and\u00a0ordered her to pay $14,970 in legal fees<\/a>\u00a0to Jarussi, who was representing the state in the case. District Judge Kathy Seeley determined that Jones inappropriately warned other witnesses to withhold evidence. The judge also forwarded her order to Office of Disciplinary Counsel.<\/p>\n

In a March 15, 2018, order in that case, Seeley also addressed the question about whether Jarussi had a conflict of interest that prevented him from serving as the prosecutor in the matter.<\/p>\n

The Montana Growth Network argued the Billings-based law firm that Jarussi was working out of should be barred from participating in the prosecution because one of the firm\u2019s partners, John Heenan, is running for the U.S. House as a Democrat. The group also argued that Jarussi should also be removed from the case because he was working out of that same law office.<\/p>\n

The judge rejected that claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout specific evidence of a conflict or other disqualifying relationship or action, Heenan\u2019s campaign as a democrat for public office does not disqualify the law firm or Jarussi by association to the law firm,\u201d Seeley wrote.<\/p>\n

On April 13 the Montana Growth Network settled with the state.<\/a>\u00a0Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the group agreed to pay a $30,000 fine and admit that it violated the state\u2019s campaign practices laws.<\/p>\n

John Adams is the founding editor of\u00a0The Montana Free Press<\/a>, where this story was first published.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HELENA\u00a0\u2014 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\u00a0complaint filed late last year\u00a0against Billings attorney Gene Jarussi by Republican political consultant Jake Eaton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":22245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[297,6059,6921],"class_list":["post-22244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-gene-jarussi","tag-jake-eaton","tag-jeff-mangan","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22248,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22244\/revisions\/22248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}