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Lawyers for the former head of the Montana Highway Patrol are asking a judge to tell Attorney General Austin Knudsen to stop his Department of Justice from illegally disseminating confidential personnel information — which the DOJ denies doing.
The attorneys allege the DOJ provided private information to a political consultant for Knudsen, Jake Eaton — who more widely released it — and that the state interfered with a lawsuit in doing so.
A motion filed this week in Lewis and Clark County District Court asks the judge to set a hearing for Knudsen and the state of Montana to explain why they should not be found in contempt of court.
Last month, former MHP Col. Steve Lavin filed a lawsuit against Knudsen and the state of Montana alleging he was wrongfully terminated after he launched a management review and workplace climate survey.
A DOJ spokesperson earlier disputed the allegation and said Lavin and Knudsen mutually agreed he would retire after it became “clear” the highway patrol had “lost confidence” in the colonel.
Lavin served the highway patrol for 29 years. He left in March 2024, and he and other longtime career officers, who mostly left before they planned, recently said the MHP has been in turmoil under Knudsen’s management.
However, the motion filed this week alleges the DOJ shared private information with Eaton, of The Political Company, which provides fundraising consulting to Knudsen. It does not say what part of the email’s contents violate employee confidentiality.
The email from Eaton talks about the lawsuit Lavin filed, describes him as a “super nice guy” but “an inept leader,” and alleges his wrongful termination claims are “the work of revisionist history.”
Knudsen is a Republican running for re-election this year. The Knudsen campaign has paid The Political Company $3,500 most months this year and $5,000 in August and September, according to campaign finance reports.
Citing an email and letter from Eaton, the court filing said Eaton appears to have distributed the “personnel information” to his client email list. It said Eaton also sent Lavin a handwritten note card warning him the lawsuit against Knudsen was a bad idea.
Eaton is not a party to the lawsuit. However, Eaton told the Daily Montanan the contents of his email came from “Helena gossip circles” and social media, not the DOJ.
Separately, and not included in the court filing, a former Montana Highway Patrol officer who publicly criticized Knudsen provided audio to the Daily Montanan of a voicemail he received with a message critical of Lavin and encouraging people to call Lavin; he said it came from an unknown number.
The brief outlines the arguments about the email and note card.
On Oct. 1, Eaton sent an email with the subject line “Steve Lavin” about the lawsuit Lavin filed against the AG. In the email, Eaton said at first, he supported Lavin, a former client, as head of the MHP.
“Unfortunately, once given the post, Steve proved to be an inept leader that was more interested in taking advantage of the perks of his position than doing the job that needed to be done at MHP,” said the email from Eaton.
In the email, Eaton also said Lavin’s lawyers, “as I understand it,” tried to negotiate a deal to “keep it all quiet” if the state paid him $750,000, offering “thinly veiled threats” such as bad press.
The court filing said the email contains “a variety of errors,” likely includes personnel information “confidential under Montana law,” and contains communications about an initial notice and demand for settlement.
“In other words, the email includes information that could only have been disseminated by the Montana Department of Justice,” the court filing said.
In an earlier interview, Lavin said he had not once had a negative performance review. His lawsuit describes his tenure with MHP as “unblemished.”
The court filing said Montana law considers personnel records confidential to protect individual employee privacy. It also said contempt is defined in part by misbehavior in office or willful neglect or violation of duty.
“Clearly, Eaton got Lavin’s personnel information from somewhere,” the court filing said. “If, as seems clear, Defendants shared this information with Eaton, or directed Eaton to use this information, then their actions constitute misbehavior in office or other willful neglect or violation of duty.”
It also requested the court require Knudsen and Eaton to explain themselves: “It is possible that he (Eaton) got it from somewhere other than defendants, in much the same way that, if one hears hoofbeats in Texas, it could be zebras and not horses.
“The court should require defendants, and Eaton, to explain themselves.”
In an email to the Daily Montanan, Eaton said Lavin’s lawyers are playing politics. Eaton said he offered the following statement on behalf of himself, not any political client.
“Steve’s allegations against (me are) obviously false,” Eaton said. “Anyone looking at his social media can see he is a guy that was way more interested in fishing and golfing than doing his job. Now liberal trial lawyers are taking advantage of his bitterness to score political points and try to make a few bucks.”
Lavin is represented by the Delli, Bovi, Martin and Reed law firm of Helena.
The lawyers said the email and letter were meant to “insult, demoralize and threaten Lavin, or otherwise interfere with the court’s proceedings.”
Prior to filing the motion in court, the lawyers tried to learn more about the email Eaton sent.
In an Oct. 9 letter included with the motion, lawyer Ben Reed asked the Brown Law Firm, representing Knudsen, about Eaton’s email. Reed describes it as “pretty clearly libelous,” and he also said he was aware Eaton’s spouse, Emily Jones, is employed by the Attorney General’s Office.
Jones was on Knudsen’s transition team to take over the Department of Justice, and the Jones Law Firm receives $10,000 a month from the DOJ.
“I have no reason to believe that Mr. Eaton is sending these notes for his own entertainment,” said the email from Reed to the Brown Law Firm. “Given his line of work, I think it is more likely that he is working at someone’s direction. If he is, I regard this as problematic.”
“I would ask you, or your client, to affirmatively deny that this is the case by the end of this week. Otherwise, I will ask the court to intercede.”
In response, the Brown Law Firm said Eaton is not an employee or agent of the state of Montana: “Our understanding is that in his correspondence with Mr. Lavin, Mr. Eaton was acting in his own personal capacity.”
However, the Brown Law Firm did not address the email Eaton sent about Lavin — as opposed to the note card Eaton wrote to Lavin. The court filing said Knudsen’s counsel didn’t address who told Eaton to send the email or gave him the personnel information.
“The simplest explanation is that Eaton’s email correspondence was either at the direction of, or informed by defendants,” the court filing said.
In an email to the Daily Montanan, Eaton said he did not send the email at the direction of Knudsen or on behalf of his campaign. He said the contents didn’t come directly from the DOJ, but from conversations with people associated with MHP and from social media.
“There was a lot of talk from guys in and around the agency about how Steve was never around and didn’t seem to be interested in doing much once he got the promotion” to head the MHP, Eaton said.
Eaton denied that Jones shared any information with him that he used in his email, and the DOJ denied that Jones provided details of Lavin’s legal negotiations with Eaton as well.
In an earlier interview, Lavin and others who worked with him agreed it had become difficult for Lavin to lead the highway patrol. However, they said it was largely due to interference and micromanagement from the Knudsen administration.
The court filing includes copies of emails along with a photo of the handwritten note card that lists “Jake Eaton” as sender. The card said this: “This lawsuit is a bad idea. Whomever talked you into this is not looking out for your best interest.”
The notecard was sent to Lavin’s home address, and the court filing said the card and the email from Eaton are badgering Lavin and hindering court proceedings.
“Lavin believes that this card is a thinly veiled threat or menace; it is clearly not intended for any positive purpose,” the court filing said.
“Eaton’s conduct in sending the email (containing as it does falsehoods and inaccuracies) and the card (clearly intended for no good purpose) constitute an attempt to unlawfully interfere with the process or proceedings of this court.”
The audio message to the former MHP officer also addressed the lawsuit. In an earlier interview, former MHP Lt. Col. Jason Hildenstab criticized Knudsen and said the AG made it difficult for Lavin to do his job, and the Daily Montanan used his comments in a story .
Hildenstab later received an audio message about Lavin, and he said other former MHP officers who publicly criticized Knudsen also received it. Hildenstab said he didn’t know who sent it, and an unknown number left it.
“Former Republican legislator Steve Lavin is teaming up with Democrat trial lawyers to attack our attorney general,” said the message. “Call Steve Lavin at (cell phone number) and tell him to stand with Montana Republicans, not Democrat trial lawyers.”
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