Montana’s attorney general is fighting President Obama’s signature environmental regulations, but earlier this week he also managed to defeat a drunk man during a fracas after an energy conference.
According to a report in the Billings Gazette, Tim Fox, the top law enforcement official in Montana, was asleep in his hotel room after the Montana Energy Conference Tuesday night when he was awakened by a fire alarm. When he went to the hotel’s lobby, he saw 34-year-old David Carpenter accosting the top aide to Montana Sen. Steve Daines.
Carpenter, who was intoxicated, was trying to punch Daines’ chief of staff and Fox intervened. According to the report, Carpenter punched Fox in the face and tried to break away.
The Gazette reports Fox flipped Carpenter over and put him in a half-nelson, sitting on him until police arrived.
“An officer asked me for my name, and I said, ‘I’m Montana Attorney General Tim Fox,’ and she had a big grin on her face,” he told the Gazette. “They asked me if I wanted to press assault charges, but I said no.”
Police arrested Carpenter on disorderly conduct charges.
The Montana Energy Conference started Tuesday and ends Thursday afternoon. It is billed as one of the biggest annual conferences to discuss energy production in Montana.
Fox is one of 30 attorneys general suing the Obama administration over the Clean Power Plan, its proposed emissions goals for new and existing power plants.
