Legislators, Groups Push Back Against Gianforte Appointment

An appointment by Gov. Greg Gianforte to the Criminal Justice Oversight Council continues to draw scrutiny, most recently in a letter that 16 Montana organizations and seven state representatives signed.

Earlier in July, Gianforte appointed Jessica Flint, who works for Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy organization, to a position on the council representing the rights of incarcerated people. A representative from ACLU Montana has held the seat on the council since 2017, when the council was created.

The council’s job is to study and recommend solutions to issues within the criminal justice system, monitor it and work with the legislature to do so. Flint’s position is part of the Department of Corrections contingent on the council.

The Governor’s Office did not return a comment request regarding the letter, which was penned by Disability Rights Montana and sent to Gianforte on Tuesday, July 29. The letter asks the council to pause any action until a “representative with the appropriate experience protecting the civil rights of Montanans” is appointed to the council.

“When the Legislature created this seat, it clearly intended for someone with demonstrated expertise in protecting civil rights within the criminal justice system to serve,” the letter reads.

Flint’s position is as the “representative of civil rights advocates” and was created to advocate for the civil rights of incarcerated people. It is unclear if she has any prior experience working with incarcerated individuals and the Governor’s office did not offer any of her career information when asked.

Flint did not respond to a request for an interview with the Daily Montanan. Her LinkedIn profile shows she was a Billings realtor and graduated from the University of Montana.

“By contrast, ADF has overwhelmingly centered itself around religious liberty litigation, with little to no record in core criminal justice civil rights work and no on the ground presence serving Montanans on criminal justice issues,” the letter reads.

The letter is cosigned by a variety of Montana organizations, including Big Sky 55+, Forward Montana, the Montana Budget and Policy Center, Planned Parenthood, Western Native Voice, the Montana Innocence Project and the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, among others.

The ADF’s only major entrance into prisons seems to be around getting religious literature in prisons and defending female cisgender individuals who filed a lawsuit over transgender women being housed in their prisons.

The ADF has not responded to multiple requests, nor provided any examples of work advocating for the rights of incarcerated people.

Flint has said little publicly about her new role, only briefly introducing herself at a July 23 meeting of the council.

Her husband, conservative talk radio host Aaron Flint, however, degraded the ACLU in a post on X, saying the organization was “whiny and pathetic” while quote-tweeting NBC Montana coverage of his wife’s appointment.

He then went on to speak about incarceration and transgender prisoners in a separate post. He argues cisgender women’s rights are being violated if they are incarcerated with transgender women, whom he refers to as men. It’s unclear if his views also represent those of his wife.

“The ACLU claims they protect the rights of the incarcerated, yet they want to trample on the rights of incarcerated women by forcing them to be imprisoned with men proven to assault them,” Flint wrote on July 25. “#mtpol If you cared about the incarcerated, you’d protect the privacy rights of incarcerated women.”

Aaron Flint has not answered questions regarding that post or his wife’s appointment, outside of a post on X referencing a comment request by the Daily Montanan regarding his relationship with the governor.

Both Flints also posed for a photo — which Aaron Flint then posted to his Instagram account — of them with Riley Gaines, a former competitive swimmer and outspoken anti-trans advocate with a national platform.

Gaines gave testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in January over HB 121, a so-called “bathroom bill” that was passed and then signed into law. That legislation is now in court.