Montana’s attorney general, Austin Knudsen, terminated his state’s relationship to Motley Rice LLC, a similar cash cow for Democrats, in 2021. Iowa and Kansas have now made it a trend to reform how their legal officers conduct the states’ business. Other states with trial lawyer contracts still in place include Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
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Amex, Mastercard, Visa pause work on new firearms merchant code
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, one of several Republicans who welcomed the news, said in a statement on Thursday that the major credit companies “came to the correct conclusion.”
“However, they shouldn’t just ‘pause’ their implementation of this plan – they should end it definitively,” he added.
While all the top payment networks had said they would adopt the new code only the smallest, Discover, had given a public timetable for doing so, in April, and said it was only following the lead of others.
AG Knudsen announces shocking 11,000 percent increase of fentanyl seizures
HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced a nearly 11,000 percent increase in fentanyl seizures by anti-drug task forces in Montana since 2019. Additionally, triple the amount of fentanyl was seized in 2022 compared to 2021, obliterating previous records. The number of firearms found alongside drug shipments is also increasing.
In 2022, Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces seized a total of 206,955 dosage units of fentanyl in Montana – an increase of nearly 10,800 percent since 2019 when they seized 1,900 dosage units and more than triple last year’s total of 60,577 dosage units.
“The amount of illicit fentanyl coming across the southern border has skyrocketed. This poison is killing Montanans,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “Our narcotics agents and troopers are getting more fentanyl off the roads than ever before, but we need additional tools and resources to keep it out of our communities.”
These quantities are from the six RMHIDTA Montana task forces and are not all includes of drugs seized by all law enforcement in the state. Attorney General Knudsen oversees the Montana Department of Justice’s narcotics bureau and Montana Highway Patrol criminal interdiction teams that participate in the task forces.
Montana attorney general aims to decrease fentanyl trafficking numbers
MISSOULA, Mont. — The state of Montana saw some shocking numbers for fentanyl drug trafficking and use.
Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in the last four years, fentanyl seizures have jumped 10,800%.
In 2022, officials seized 206,955 doses of the dangerous drug, a massive increase from 1,900 doses in 2019.
Law enforcement officers are also finding more firearms alongside drug shipments.
AG threatens to sue nonprofit accused of going woke if taxpayer money isn’t returned: ‘Choice is yours’
FIRST ON FOX: Montana’s Republican attorney general threatened to sue a nonprofit organization of state attorneys if it didn’t return taxpayer money amid accusations of growing liberal bias in the group.
AG Austin Knudsen sent a pointed letter with a 90-day deadline to the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) following an exodus of members as questions swirl about the group’s finances and a supposedly liberal agenda despite labeling itself as nonpartisan.
“There is no doubt in my mind now that NAAG is an unreliable and improper financial steward, and that Montana’s share of the money at NAAG needs to come home,” Austin Knudsen wrote in the letter, which was dated Wednesday and obtained by Fox News Digital.
The state of President Biden is weak, thanks to his fentanyl crisis
When President Joe Biden delivers his annual message to Congress Tuesday, we have little doubt that he will once again proclaim—as he has the past two years—that “the state of the Union is strong.”
But that is far from the truth.
What he’s certain not to mention is the historic crisis at the border that has been raging for two years, created and perpetuated by his and his administration’s open-border policies. Most recently, the crisis has included nine consecutive months where illegal border crossings exceeded 200,000, with the number in December exceeding 250,000—the most ever recorded. In total, the record-breaking influx of illegal immigrants in 2022 amounted to more than twice the population of Montana or half the population of Alabama.
Admittedly, taking responsibility for anything, let alone the worst border crisis in the history of our country, would be a lot to expect from this president. However, if he cares at all about Americans’ safety, he must start taking this crisis and its collateral consequences seriously, especially how the chaos at the border has enabled a deluge of deadly drugs and a wave of violent crime to sweep into and across our country.
AG Knudsen asks Montana Legislature for more resources to address public safety needs
HELENA — On Wednesday, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said – despite being a fiscal conservative – he’s asking the Montana Legislature for a significant budget increase, because his department needs more resources to keep up with public safety needs.
Knudsen opened the Montana Department of Justice’s presentation to a joint legislative budget subcommittee.
“Simply put, we cannot keep policing in Montana like it’s still 1995,” he told lawmakers.
The state’s executive branch has called for a big investment in the public safety budget for the next two years. DOJ is proposing a $299 million budget for the 2024-2025 biennium – an increase of $38 million, or 14%, from the last appropriation.
Montana AG rips Biden admin for bombshell Keystone report
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen slammed the Biden administration, Tuesday, for their economically agonizing decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline for a “more dangerous” energy alternative – a major impediment to the state’s and nation’s economy.
Knudsen argued that the Department of Energy’s report on the Keystone XL Pipeline’s transformative economic impact is a “justification” of what he has been touting since the President ordered the cancelation.
“This was going to be a huge economic boom, not just to Montana, but to the entire country. Depending on whose numbers you look at in the Department of Energy report, they admit this would this project was going to create somewhere between 16,000-60,000 jobs in the U.S. Not to mention billions in revenue. It’s pretty stunning to me that the administration just kind of swept this under the rug and released it late on a Friday. But that’s to be expected,” the Montana Attorney General explained on “Mornings with Maria.”
Montana lawmakers hear proposed overhaul to human trafficking laws
HELENA — Jan. 11 is the National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness, and Montana leaders marked the day by proposing a major overhaul of the state’s trafficking laws.
“It’s time to tell those offenders ‘Not in our state,’” said Rep. Jodee Etchart, R-Billings.
Etchart is sponsoring House Bill 112, at the request of the Montana Department of Justice and Attorney General Austin Knudsen. The bill, which had its first hearing Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee, comes as Montana reports rapid growth in the number of trafficking cases under investigation.
Attorney General Knudsen discusses the need for more public safety resources
Attorney General Austin Knudsen and local law enforcement officials hosted a conference Wednesday to discuss the need for an increased investment in public safety amidst Montana’s drug and crime crisis.
In the conference, law enforcement officials spoke about the dangers of fentanyl abuse, a growing public safety concern for many Montana communities.
Bryan Lockerby, the Department of Criminal Investigation Administrator, said that the access to fentanyl and fentanyl-related deaths have increased twice as much in just the first quarter of 2022 compared to the past four years combined.
He further said that putting more resources to help with drug investigations would help the Attorney General to achieve the goal of supporting public safety.
18 AGs, others file briefs in case supporting parental rights in schools
Eighteen attorneys general led by Montana’s Austin Knudsen filed an amicus brief with an appeals court in support of parental rights in school in a case filed by Parents Defending Education against Linn-Mar School District in Iowa.
Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, PDE sued in August in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Iowa, Cedar Rapids Division, arguing Linn Mar’s policy to withhold information about children from their parents is unconstitutional. PDE asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction to halt the policy while the case progressed. District Judge C.J. Williams denied their request in September.
MT Attorney General Austin Knudsen: why he’s pushing back against ESG investing
A United Nations-backed group of banks and money managers — including those hired by our own State Investment Board — are working to eliminate carbon emissions in the name of climate change
The group is called the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and it’s a part of a campaign to effectively phase-out fossil fuels.
“We need traditional energy like this. And the United Nations has absolutely no business horning into banking and investment like this. And that’s why you’re seeing states like Montana push back,” said Knutsen.
