Bullock Hired Tax Evading Friend To Run Justice Department

Attorney General Steve Bullock gave a top Justice Department job to a friend on legal probation for failing to pay thousands of dollars in state and federal income taxes over a period of years, the Helena Independent Record and other Montana newspapers report.

Bullock hired James P. Molloy to run the Consumer Protection Division despite the fact the Montana Supreme Court placed him on five years legal probation for “professional misconduct.”
Molloy repeatedly failed to pay state and federal income taxes between 1995 and 2005, the Independent Record reports.  He is now one of the state’s highest-paid employees.
“Steve Bullock hired someone who’s basically a felon to protect Montana consumers.  Why is the Attorney General associating with felons, much less giving them plush state jobs?” said ATP Executive Director Donald Ferguson.

Bullock also named Molloy Assistant Attorney General despite the fact Molloy is still on probation by the Montana Supreme Court.

Bullock later put Molloy in charge of arguing a campaign finance case against American Tradition Partnership in front of the same state Supreme Court that put him on probation.

In that case Bullock and Molloy made numerous demonstrably false charges against ATP.  The U.S. Supreme Court handed Bullock another embarrassing loss in that case.

“Bullock paid his felonious friend to tell lies about American Tradition Partnership in front of the same Supreme Court that put him on probation for lying to officials,” said Ferguson.

Bullock and Molloy have been long-time friends, sharing an office in Helena before Bullock’s narrow election as attorney general.  Bullock kept all questions about repeated tax evasions and probation out of the interview process for the job.

According to the Montana Supreme Court’s “Public Discipline List,” Molloy was publicly reprimanded and placed on five years probation effective March 11, 2009.  The case is “PR 08-0438.”
Bullock hired his friend just a few months after the probation for tax evasion was issued.

“As part of his probation, Molloy must provide the court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel copies of his state and federal taxes returns after he filed them,” the Missoulian newspaper reports.

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