Montanans and its press won’t bow to the ‘tin god’ Knudsen

Attorney General Austin Knudsen. (Provided by the Montana Attorney General's Office for the Daily Montanan.)

Before taking office, every elected official in Montana must take an oath to protect and defend the Montana Constitution. For Attorney General Austin Knudsen, that oath should have included a promise to also read the Montana Constitution.

Montana’s supposed chief law enforcement officer apparently is unaware of the Constitution’s guarantee of press freedom and the public’s right to know. He is attempting to censor a Montana news organization by demanding the Daily Montanan, an online publication, stop making available to the public a report revealing a significant portion of Montana Highway Patrol employees are fed up with his inane leadership.

And he’s threatening to use the power of his office to take legal action if the Daily Montanan doesn’t obey.

Knudsen claims the report, containing the results of a survey of Highway Patrol staffers, violates the privacy of those employees. That is untrue. The report contains no information that can identify – and therefore violate the privacy of – any employees.

The fact is the report makes Knudsen look bad and he’s embarrassed, so he wants to prevent as many Montanans as possible from reading the document and learning that he’s lost the confidence and support of many in a key agency in his Justice Department. He’s throwing a tantrum, lashing out the messenger rather than focusing on doing something to address the problems identified in the report.

If you want details, you can read and download the report at

https://dailymontanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/MHP-full-report-small.pdf

The Daily Montanan, of course, has told Knudsen to blow it out his ear. Good for them. They have the Constitution on their side. And so do Montana citizens who have a right to know that one of their statewide elected officials has major problems within his department. After all, nearly $45,000 of their tax dollars paid for the report.

This isn’t the first time Knudsen has overstepped. It was Knudsen in October 2021 who sent a Highway Patrol officer to a Helena hospital to interfere with the treatment of COVID patient. In essence, he ordered a traffic cop to get involved in a health care matter.

He twice overruled county attorneys in 2021,  demanding one throw out gun-related charges against a man accused of assaulting a restaurant worker over a face mask requirement and ordering another to toss a case against a bar that ignored a county order to close early to slow the spread of COVID.

In May of this year, Knudsen admitted skirting campaign finance laws by recruiting another Republican to run against him as a token primary election candidate so he could raise more money for the general election. He said he did it because the state’s “ campaign laws are ridiculous .”

This from the very man charged with enforcing those laws.

A “tin god” is defined as a pompous, petty and self-important person. Despite his unconstitutional view of press freedom, Knudsen and his tin throne will find that the Montana news organizations won’t bow before his arrogance and bullying.