WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus defended Recommending his girlfriend for appointment as Montana's U.S. attorney, saying Friday his one-time staff member and the former state prosecutor is "highly qualified" but eventually withdrew her nomination.
Baucus said that they began dating former state office director Melodee Hanes after they were both separated from their spouses. The Montana Democrat said they did not have an affair, but began dating while she worked for him.
"As we grew closer and things progressed, we knew it was time to begin the process of Mel transitioning out of my Senate office," Baucus said in a statement issued by his office Saturday.
He said they recommended Hanes to become Montana's U.S. attorney while they were dating "Because she is a highly qualified prosecutor who tried more than 100 jury trials and is Widely regarded as an expert in child abuse prosecution.
"Mel would have been an excellent U.S. Attorney for Montana," Baucus said. "I, for one, did not want her relationship with me to disqualify her from applying for the position."
Baucus' office released a resume for Hanes, Which only listed her as the federal court experience handling personal injury and employment discrimination cases from 1982 Thurs 1986 as a partner in a private Iowa Law Firm. All of Hanes' experience as a prosecutor came in state court, mostly in child abuse cases in Iowa and Montana, according to the resume.
She received prosecutor's training in 1994 at the FBI's National Law Institute in Quantico, VA., The resume states.
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