HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen was in Havre on Thursday and spoke with New Media Broadcasters.
Knudsen said that he spent part of the day speaking with officials with the Hill County Sheriff’s Office and Havre Police Department, and both expressed their concern about the spike in fentanyl use.
“Fentanyl is terrifying stuff, because it is so powerful that just a microscopic amount is lethal. They are now trafficking it into Montana in large tablet and pill form. That’s just a gargantuan amount of lethal poison. This is what’s being trafficked now, unfortunately. We’re seeing more and more of that. We’re seeing more overdoses, more deaths, and this is scary stuff.”
Knudsen says the Department of Justice is awarding grants to local sheriff’s offices and police departments to allow them to receive drug sniffing dogs to help combat this issue.
Almost all dogs that were previously able to be used for drug sniffing are now or will soon be out of commission due to the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Vaccine Lawsuits
Knudsen also discussed three different lawsuits that the State is a part of, all of which are an attempt to prevent COVID vaccine requirements issued by the White House from impacting Montana.
Knudsen claims the actions by the Biden Administration are unconstitutional and represent federal overreach.
The lawsuits are intended to strike down vaccine or regular testing requirements for large businesses, a vaccine requirement for employees of CMS certified facilities, and vaccine requirements for new and renewed federal contractors.
A federal injunction regarding the OSHA requirement for vaccines or regular testing for large employers has been issued by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
When it comes to the lawsuits over requirements for CMS certified facilities and federal contractors, Knudsen says he is confident this side will prevail in court.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re going to see a similar injunction on the CMS rule and the federal contractor rule, but we don’t have those injunctions in place yet.”
The CMS and OSHA rule has put local health care organizations in a difficult situation, as a failure to follow the federal rules could lead to them being fined and also unable to bill for services for Medicare and Medicaid patients if 75 percent of their patients are Medicare or Medicaid.
Knudsen says that these rules, if enacted, could lead to an increased shortage in healthcare workers in Montana.
Legislative Investigation
Knudsen also commented on the ongoing investigation into his alleged actions at St. Peter’s in Helena.
Lee Newspapers has reported that Knudsen spoke with Hospital leaders and the Department of Justice dispatched a Highway Patrol Trooper after a patient was denied a request to be treated for COVID-19 with ivermectin.
Knudsen confirmed that he spoke with a member of the Hospital’s Board, but says the allegations have been mischaracterized and there were never any threats made.
“We’ve got nothing to hide. We’re cooperating fully with the legislative investigators. Despite what Lee Newspapers may be putting out there, there were no threats made by anybody in my office. This had nothing to do with certain medications or ivermectin. I’m not a doctor, I don’t pretend to be one, I’m not a pharmacologist. What happened is my office received word that there was a patient who was not being allowed to leave the hospital despite her wish to do so. That she was being denied access to legal documents that were prepared for her in the case of an end of life situation, power of attorney. Those are very important legal documents that she needed to get access to, and the report that we got was simply that the Hospital was not letting those be delivered back to her. That’s very concerning to me, as the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Montana. So what I did is I reached out personally to a member of the Board at St. Peter’s Hospital, who put me in contact with the CEO and the Chief Medical Officer, and I had a conversation with them. At no time were any threats leveled against anybody. At no time did the Department of Justice demand that certain medications be given. That just did not happen. So we are cooperating fully with the legislative investigation. We’ve turned over every piece of document and communication that exists, and I’m looking forward to the finding that it’s going to say exactly what I just said.”
Officials with the Hospital have disputed Knudsen’s story in comments provided to the Independent Record.
Hill County Attorney Shortage
Hill County is in the midst of a staffing shortage when it comes to Attorney’s. Brian Lilletvedt was recently appointed as the County Attorney following the departure of Karen Alley, but Lilletvedt has said he is only serving in the role on an interim basis.
In addition, Hill County does not have any Deputy County Attorney’s at the moment, due to R. Tim Jeffrey’s resignation in early November.
Knudsen says he has been aware of the shortage and the Department of Justice has been providing assistance with certain cases, but they are stretched pretty thin themselves.
“We have the Prosecution Services Bureau (PSB). Basically, that’s the elite prosecutors. When there’s a major crime, a homicide, a nasty sex assault case, we have the expertise in the PSB to show up and render assistance to the County Attorney’s who maybe don’t have the expertise in those kinds of cases. We’re doing that now here in Hill County. I know there’s a couple of homicide cases, we actually just did one, a successful case here in Hill County. I think we’ve got one or two more. That’s something I spoke with the Sheriff about today. We stand willing and able to help out. Candidly, it’s a bit of a spectrum problem for us because the PSB is stretched pretty thin. There’s an uptick in violent crime in the state of Montana. The prosecutors at the DOJ are running around all over, they are very busy. But the Hi-Line is very important to me and if there is any assistance needed, we’re going to render it.”
