AUGUSTA — In a move bound to create political fallout, Gov. Paul LePage sued Attorney General Janet Mills on Monday and accused her of a “clear abuse of power” because she wouldn’t represent him in a controversial federal case involving President Donald Trump’s two stalled immigration orders.
Mills denounced the governor’s move for wasting state resources to hire an Auburn law firm to file what she termed a “frivolous lawsuit” to try to force her hand.
A LePage news release said Mills’ office has repeatedly refused to represent the administration in court cases she does not agree with politically, causing the state to pay “hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside attorney fees” for which Maine taxpayers are on the hook.
“The problem is she has publicly denounced court cases which the executive branch has requested to join and subsequently refuses to provide legal representation for the state,” LePage said. As a result, he said, he can’t carry out the duties he sees as necessary for Mainers.
Mills called the suit filed in Kennebec County Superior Court unnecessary because she “has never denied the governor the ability to retain outside counsel in any particular matter.”
The governor’s lawsuit makes it clear that he and Mills have taken opposing positions on Trump’s executive orders on immigration, both on hold as federal courts sort out legal issues.
Mills has sided with states trying to block the orders while LePage strongly supports Trump’s effort to bar immigration from a handful of Islamic countries.
It appears, though, that Mills urged LePage to sign on to a brief prepared by others to make his position clear rather than go through the expense of filing his own statement with the courts.
Siding with LePage, state House GOP leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, said that it “appears as though the relationship between the attorney general and the governor has deteriorated to a point where the basic function of legal representation is not happening the way it’s supposed to.”
“Maybe it takes a lawsuit to force the attorney general to act appropriately in the representation of the state and the governor’s office in legal matters,” he said in a prepared statement.
In the 11-page lawsuit filed for LePage by Auburn lawyers Bryan Dench and Amy Dieterich of Skelton, Taintor & Abbott, the suit alleges that Mills refused to represent Maine’s interests in litigation surrounding the immigration orders.
The suit says that LePage considered the president’s initial order “a measured and appropriate action to protect the people of Maine and to enforce the laws,” but Mills opposed it and joined in a legal brief opposing it.
When LePage sought to file a brief backing Trump, the suit claims, Mills prevented him from doing so through “delay and obstruction.” That order is on hold while a federal court reviews it.
After Trump issued a second executive order with some revisions, LePage asked Mills to represent him or let him hire outside counsel so he could weigh in on the issue once another judge blocked it temporarily.
The suit claims Mills refused, but Mills said her office “simply said that whoever the governor chooses should be licensed to practice law and should carry malpractice insurance, two common sense prerequisites which any prudent business person would employ as well.”
She also said LePage could have signed on to another party’s brief without costing taxpayers anything.
LePage said he could not hire a lawyer to assist without Mills’ written approval, which he didn’t get.
The governor said he considered the impact of Trump’s order and determined that it would benefit Maine because previous federal immigration policies had led to 220 refugees resettling in Maine since Oct. 1, 2016, “including 131 from terrorist havens named in the president’s order.”
He also said that MaineCare spent $41 million on health care for noncitizens last year and that Maine’s General Fund shelled out $6.7 million for food assistance and cash benefits in 2016 for people who are not American citizens.
LePage said the federal government imposed the financial burden without offering any financial help.
Determined to tell the Hawaii court considering Trump’s second order about his concerns, LePage asked Mills to approve his hiring counsel to help him represent the state of Maine in the case.
In response, one of her underlings told him to sign on to someone else’s brief for free or to file one of his own but pay for the outside counsel from the governor’s own budget instead of the attorney general’s, the suit alleges.
The governor said the answer was “unresponsive” and asked again. He received a more detailed reply that largely repeated the advice.
“Shifting the financial burden to the governor is not only inappropriate, but the Attorney General also imposed improper conditions on the authority by which the governor shall be represented in the litigation,” LePage’s office said.
The lawsuit asks a state court to require her office to pay the tab. It doesn’t say how much money is at stake nor is there any explanation of who is paying the Auburn firm for its legal help or what its bill will be. The attorneys could not be reached late Monday.
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