Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has invoked supervisory control over Gallatin County Attorney Audrey Cromwell, following her failure to issue a memorandum clarifying that Gallatin County may share confidential criminal justice information (CCJI) with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for civil immigration enforcement functions.
On April 2, Attorney General Knudsen sent a letter to Cromwell demanding she rescind her policy refusing to recognize ICE as a “criminal justice agency” and share CCJI with the agency. Cromwell has since refused to do so.
“The cognitive dissonance in your reply is astounding. You have now sworn under oath that there is no policy regarding sharing CCJI with ICE. Yet you also maintain that, under your novel interpretation of Montana law, Gallatin County will not share CCJI with ICE for civil immigration enforcement purposes without a court order. Both things cannot be true,” Attorney General Knudsen wrote.
Under the limited supervisory control, Knudsen is directing Cromwell’s office to share confidential criminal justice information with ICE for all lawful purposes, including civil administrative immigration matters, and to produce all documents, records, and communications related to the matter as specified in Knudsen’s April 30 letter. Cromwell has 30 days to produce the records.
By DNU staff