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HELENA - Sen. Max Baucus' office confirmed late Friday that the Montana Democrat was romantically involved with his state director, Melodee Hanes, when he nominated her for Montana's U.S. attorney, Roll Call is reporting.

Hanes withdrew her name from consideration earlier this year.

Baucus submitted her name in March along with two others, Sherman Potter and Buck Wheat, to the White House for the top federal prosecutor's job in Montana. President Barack Obama named Cotter to the job last month.

Roll Call, citing an anonymous source, said Baucus and Hanes began their relationship in the summer of 2008, nearly a year before the senator and his wife, Wanda, got a divorce in April 2009. The newspaper said Baucus and his wife had separated in March 2008 and lived apart when he began dating Hanes.

Hanes pulled her name from consideration for the U.S. attorney job to move to Washington, the newspaper said. She works in the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as a counselor to the administrator.

Roll Call said Hanes, who also is divorced, now lives with Baucus in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf issued a statement saying the Baucus-Hanes relationship wasn't the cause of the divorce, nor did Baucus arrange for her job at the Justice Department.

"In no way was their relationship the cause of their respective divorces," Matsdorf said. "When Sen. Baucus and Melodee Hanes, his former state director, realized that their relationship was developing beyond a purely professional nature, Melodee began the process of resigning her Senate employment."

After she withdrew from consideration for the U.S. attorney post, Hanes independently applied for the Justice Department job, Matsdorf said.

"Having extensive experience and qualifications in the field, Ms. Hanes was awarded the position based solely on her merit," he said. "Since then she has excelled in her role."

Baucus previously was married to Tawny Kitaen before marrying Wanda Baucus.

MainJustice, the Web site that broke the story, had this comment from Hanes' ex-husband, Thomas Bennett of Billings: "She was recommended for the position because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus, and she withdrew because of a very close and personal relationship with Max Baucus."

Roll Call said Hanes worked as the regional finance director for Baucus' 2002 re-election campaign. From 2003 to 2005, she served as field director and counsel to his office. Hanes was Baucus' state director and counsel from 2005 until this spring.

The newspaper said Hanes previously was a deputy county attorney in Yellowstone County and mainly prosecuted felony sexual assault and child abuse cases.