Law enforcement officers say they were pressured to lie when Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana killed a black wolf in 2021. He says the story is an election-year smear.
Justin Hawkaluk, left, a former game warden with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and Dave Loewen, the department’s former chief of law enforcement, in Helena, Mont., last month.Credit...Holly Pickett for The New York Times
Jonathan Weisman reported from Missoula, Whitefish and Kalispell, Mont.
June 2, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET
The game warden in Helena, Mont., received a phone call one morning in March 2021 with a request that he knew might not end well for him. His boss and friend at the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department asked him to record officially the killing of a wolf, a fairly routine request save for one detail.
The hunter was the state’s governor, Greg Gianforte.
“I said I wanted no part of it,” the warden, Justin Hawkaluk, recalled with a barely audible chuckle.
Mr. Hawkaluk now says his sense of dread was warranted. By the time the wolf affair was settled, his superiors had pressured him to lie about the governor’s role, and his boss would be forced out of the department, he told The New York Times in his first interview about the episode. He, too, would leave a job he said he loved.
The story of the governor, the wolf and the warden made few waves when it first broke. Wolf hunting is legal and fairly common in Montana. Mr. Gianforte was recorded as the killer of the animal, an adult black wolf, and given a warning for not having taken a required trapping course. A spokeswoman for the governor said Mr. Gianforte had “immediately rectified the mistake” by taking the course. A spokesman for the department said at the time that the matter had been handled as it would have been for anyone.
But Mr. Gianforte, a Republican, is running for re-election this year, and some find the killing of a once-protected species distasteful. The treatment of wolves is back in the news, after a snowmobiler in Wyoming struck one, taped its mouth shut and showed it off at a bar before killing it.
Law enforcement officers involved with recording Mr. Gianforte’s wolf, collared as No. 1155 by trackers in nearby Yellowstone National Park, now say the procedures were anything put typical. They say that officials leaned on them to record the governor’s hunting buddy, rather than governor himself, as the shooter, in an attempt to avoid giving the governor a citation, and that the officials bristled when the warden and his boss refused.
A wolf pack in Yellowstone National Park.Credit...National Park Service, via Associated Press
Mr. Hawkaluk said he saw it as an attempted “cover-up.”
“I don’t know if the governor had anything to do with, or was even aware of, it,” he said. “But I was, like, ‘Guys, nice try, but, no, you’re going to have to take your medicine.’”
The governor’s spokesman, Sean Southard, did not directly address whether Mr. Gianforte had been involved in trying to foist the wolf hunt onto his friend. Instead, he dismissed the warden’s account as “far-left fever dreams pedaled by desperate partisans.”
Greg Lemon, a spokesman for the department, said that the agency would not comment on personnel issues but that its employees did their jobs “without political calculation or motivation.”
There was nothing illegal about killing a radio-collared wolf that had strayed out of the national park and onto private land. About 250 to 300 Montana wolves are intentionally killed each year, some as trophies, some by ranchers who blame them for killing livestock. Since their reintroduction into the wilderness three decades ago, Montana’s wolves have been tracked and studied to see how they are affecting the environment, natural and man-made.
Justin Hawkaluk, left, a former game warden with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and Dave Loewen, the department’s former chief of law enforcement, in Helena, Mont., last month.Credit...Holly Pickett for The New York Times
Jonathan Weisman reported from Missoula, Whitefish and Kalispell, Mont.
June 2, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET
The game warden in Helena, Mont., received a phone call one morning in March 2021 with a request that he knew might not end well for him. His boss and friend at the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department asked him to record officially the killing of a wolf, a fairly routine request save for one detail.
The hunter was the state’s governor, Greg Gianforte.
“I said I wanted no part of it,” the warden, Justin Hawkaluk, recalled with a barely audible chuckle.
Mr. Hawkaluk now says his sense of dread was warranted. By the time the wolf affair was settled, his superiors had pressured him to lie about the governor’s role, and his boss would be forced out of the department, he told The New York Times in his first interview about the episode. He, too, would leave a job he said he loved.
The story of the governor, the wolf and the warden made few waves when it first broke. Wolf hunting is legal and fairly common in Montana. Mr. Gianforte was recorded as the killer of the animal, an adult black wolf, and given a warning for not having taken a required trapping course. A spokeswoman for the governor said Mr. Gianforte had “immediately rectified the mistake” by taking the course. A spokesman for the department said at the time that the matter had been handled as it would have been for anyone.
But Mr. Gianforte, a Republican, is running for re-election this year, and some find the killing of a once-protected species distasteful. The treatment of wolves is back in the news, after a snowmobiler in Wyoming struck one, taped its mouth shut and showed it off at a bar before killing it.
Law enforcement officers involved with recording Mr. Gianforte’s wolf, collared as No. 1155 by trackers in nearby Yellowstone National Park, now say the procedures were anything put typical. They say that officials leaned on them to record the governor’s hunting buddy, rather than governor himself, as the shooter, in an attempt to avoid giving the governor a citation, and that the officials bristled when the warden and his boss refused.
A wolf pack in Yellowstone National Park.Credit...National Park Service, via Associated Press
Mr. Hawkaluk said he saw it as an attempted “cover-up.”
“I don’t know if the governor had anything to do with, or was even aware of, it,” he said. “But I was, like, ‘Guys, nice try, but, no, you’re going to have to take your medicine.’”
The governor’s spokesman, Sean Southard, did not directly address whether Mr. Gianforte had been involved in trying to foist the wolf hunt onto his friend. Instead, he dismissed the warden’s account as “far-left fever dreams pedaled by desperate partisans.”
Greg Lemon, a spokesman for the department, said that the agency would not comment on personnel issues but that its employees did their jobs “without political calculation or motivation.”
There was nothing illegal about killing a radio-collared wolf that had strayed out of the national park and onto private land. About 250 to 300 Montana wolves are intentionally killed each year, some as trophies, some by ranchers who blame them for killing livestock. Since their reintroduction into the wilderness three decades ago, Montana’s wolves have been tracked and studied to see how they are affecting the environment, natural and man-made.