HELENA – A conservative group has filed a lawsuit in its fight against charges that it illegally hid work to influence elections.
Western Tradition Partnership was the group also behind the lawsuit that lifted Montana’s century-old ban on corporate political money.
The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices filed a lengthy complaint last month against the group.
The ethics chief argued the group violated campaign finance law numerous times by failing to disclose money spent on pieces attacking candidates for office.
Western Tradition Partnership and another group countered Monday in the new lawsuit that the commissioner’s investigation oversteps its legal boundaries and violates WTP’s constitutional rights.