Multiple Complaints Filed Against Montana SupCo Justice
Multiple complaints have now been filed against liberal Montana Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson. Gustafson is running against James Brown, the conservative candidate who wants to restore fairness to the Montana Supreme court.
The first complaint was filed by Dr. Al Olszewski, a former state senator who ran in the Republican primary for Congress. Dr. Al posted the news on his Facebook page, saying that Gustafson needs to be held accountable:
Dr. Al: The justice produced an aired commercial in a Montana courtroom in Gallatin County. That's against Montana Code Annotated and it's an ethics violation. As a legislator, I'm not allowed to film a commercial for campaigning on the floor of the Senate or the floor of the House. Nobody is above the law, including Supreme Court justices.
Conservative consultant Jake Eaton also filed two Judicial Standards complaints criticizing Gustafson for ruling on cases that involved her campaign contributors.
You can read the complaints in full here: attachment-JSC (1) attachment-JSC (2)
Eaton: Justice Gustafson had received and was actively promoting the endorsement from lawyers and parties to a case while their case was in front of her. She did not disclose the conflict to anyone and ultimately ruled in their favor...But it gets even worse…just weeks before issuing her ruling in the case, she held a high-dollar fundraiser in the private home of one of the attorneys on the case.
In case you missed it, earlier this week we detailed the dark money operatives that are fueling the campaign for Gustafson along with Monica Tranel, the Democrat candidate for Congress in Western Montana who is taking on former Trump Interior Secretary and Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke.
As Dave Skinner reports, Democrat megadonors are funneling money into dark money groups to support Gustafson's campaign. Click here for the full report.