Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills warned Gov. Paul LePage's administration to no longer use executive branch attorneys outside her office. Meanwhile LePage's legal counsel said Mills and her staff are not to be trusted.
Bangor Daily News reported that this only escalates the long standing feud between Mills and LePage. Mills wrote a letter to LePage's chief legal counsel Cynthia Montgomery on January 8 saying that the use of outside attorneys would make the state more vulnerable to liability claims.
"A person who happens to have a law degree [and works for state government] may give policy and strategy advice, but in no case should that attorney profess to give legal advice," said Mills. "The administration is free to call upon this office and draw upon our experience for the history and interpretation of any statute or fact scenario, as we have given such advice to administrations of every stripe over many years. That is the job and the obligation of this office."
Montgomery responded saying Mills' charges are based on her contentious relationship with LePage. Montgomery told Portland Press Herald that she has met with Mills to talk about the lawyer issue, but she still doesn't fully comprehend what Mills truly wants. Montgomery said there are employees in the Department of Health and Human Services who are attorneys and can develop policy, write legislation, and draft contracts. She said she sees nothing wrong in that.
According to Syracuse, opponents of Governor LePage failed to get enough support for a vote two weeks ago on an investigation that could have strengthened the impeachment trial against him. Democratic Rep. Ben Chipman of Portland led a group to impeach LePage. The governor simply called the move nonsense and foolish.
Back to Mills and LePage, the conflict between them hit a tipping point back in 2014 when the AG declined representing the Governor in a legal case to pass two of his initiatives. These were to drop 19 and 20-year-olds from the state's Medicaid rolls and the lawsuit against LePage's effort to change certain policies for immigrants.
