Corruption news for Montana, from the Great Falls Tribune:

Even as Republicans sought the high ground in the ongoing battle over Montana's troubled political practices office, inadvertently released emails show GOP leaders maneuvering to fill the ethics chief post with an ally. Montana Senate President Jim Peterson, R-Buffalo, took the podium at the hearing to accuse Gov. Brian Schweitzer's administration of possibly erasing computer evidence that Peterson alleged could demonstrate that former commissioner Dave Gallik was doing work for his private law practice from a state computer.

The email, which Peterson said he accidentally attached to application documents, shows a Republican lawmaker discussing ways to trick the governor into unknowingly picking an applicant the GOP views as a secret conservative ally.

Read the rest of the story at the Great Falls Tribune.