Deepfakes or criminalizing free speech?: ‘It’s politics’ Bozeman attorney says of mailers in complaint

Lewistown resident Dan Bartel’s 1,872 mailers with doctored images of Republican state House District 68 candidate Jennifer Carlson of Churchill holding LGBTQ+ pride flags and wearing gender-pronoun buttons is free speech, argues a legal complaint filed in Montana U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

“Plaintiff Dan Bartel is a former legislator who is currently under state investigation, faces imminent civil and criminal prosecution — for doing what the First Amendment expressly protects: producing campaign mailers to inform voters about how their legislators spent taxpayer money,” reads the complaint.

Carlson’s response: “It seems Bartel is admitting that what he did is illegal, so there’s that.”

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus, and Lewis and Clark County Attorney Kevin Downs are defendants. Bartel’s Bozeman attorney, Matthew Monforton, who authored the complaint, argues that the altered photos are an accurate representation of the candidates’ ideology.

Other mailers produced by Bartel, but designed and printed by Resolve Campaigns LLC, depict Republican Rep. Eric Albus, who represents the Glasgow, Malta, Chinook and Chester areas, similarly to Carlson.

“It’s politics,” Monforton told the Chronicle. “Candidates have uncomplimentary things said about them all the time. That’s part of what they sign up for when they register.”

Bartel, a Republican, represented House District 29 from 2017 to 2021, and Senate District 15, encompassing Scobey, Plentywood and Glasgow, from 2021 to 2025. Monforton, also a Republican, represented House District 69 encompassing Three Forks, Whitehall, Ennis and Virginia City from 2015 to 2017.

“Montana legislators are the biggest crybabies in the nation,” Monforton said. “It’s an unbelievable cowardice. It would be better for everyone, including Representative Carlson, if she simply owned up to her pro-woke votes rather than censuring her critics.”

Carlson mailed her complaint over Bartel’s mailers to the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices on April 20.

She cites Montana Senate Bill 25. The law, passed during the 2025 legislative session, regulates the use of AI-generated content and “deepfakes” in election communications.

“Isn’t that special,” Carlson said Wednesday when the Chronicle informed her of the complaint. “It’s absolute desperation. The Freedom Caucus is looking for an activist judge to overturn this law, passed by the Republican Legislature. Maybe they could produce some of those Democrat woke votes they talk about.”

Monforton’s complaint quotes Montana Citizens for Right to Work v. Mangan.

“The First Amendment requires that politicians tolerate insulting, event outrageous speech, to provide adequate breathing space to the freedoms protected by (it),” it reads.

In that 2022 case, the court found that Montana’s 2007 Clean Campaign Act, requiring certain election disclosures, violated the First Amendment by restricting free speech.

The case is one of four others cited in the complaint. All were brought and won by Monforton.

“Those are four separate federal civil rights lawsuits that I successfully brought in response to Montana legislators attempting to censure criticism of their record,” he said.

Monforton responded affirmatively when asked if he is OK with Democrats using the same tactics employed by Bartel.

“As long as it’s protected by the first amendment and not defamatory, (it’s) absolutely (OK),” Monforton said. “Candidates accept the fact that they are going to be targeted with negative advertisements. Every politician in every one of the 49 other states accepts this.”

A Wyoming judge recently ruled that Freedom Caucus political action committee mailers didn’t defame legislators in the state in April, according to Cowboy State Daily.

The Freedom Caucus is a group of conservative Republicans in the Montana Legislature. It acts as a hard-line, ultra-conservative bloc aimed at pushing the Republican agenda further to the right, acting as a counterweight to both Democrats and more moderate members of its own party.

Accountability in State Government, a Montana PAC founded by Bartel and credited in the mailers depicting Carlson and Albus, is also a listed plaintiff in the complaint.

ASG is “working to make sure leaders serve the people with honesty, openness, and responsibility,” according to the organization’s website. “Honesty builds trust. Leaders must speak the truth, even when it is hard, so citizens can rely on their word.”

Monforton said he trusts voters to differentiate whether images on mailers are original or heavily edited.

“Much of this kind of advertising is taken with a grain of salt,” he said. “Voters can figure it out. They are a lot smarter than Montana politicians give them credit for.”

Carlson alleges Bartel manufactured the mailer “with the intent to injure the reputation of the candidate or otherwise deceive a voter, appears to a reasonable person to depict an individual saying or doing something that did not occur.”

SB 25 made it a misdemeanor to distribute or sponsor AI-altered images, audio or video constituting false depictions of candidates within 60 days of an election, unless a disclaimer is included.

Two offenses are punishable by a fine of up to $500, six months or less in prison, or both. The charge becomes a felony with cumulative punishment for third and subsequent offenders.

The act authorizes aggrieved candidates and political parties to seek financial relief of up to $10,000 in damages.

Gallus, Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, spearheaded the investigation into Bartel.

“If violations are found to have occurred and prosecution is determined to be justified, this matter will be referred to the local county attorney,” Gallus wrote in a plaintiff letter. “The local county attorney then determines whether they will prosecute the matter or refer it back to me.”