Senator lobs ‘waste, fraud and abuse' allegations at Senate President Regier — who rejects claims
Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan)
On the last day before the 69th Montana Legislature adjourned for transmittal break and after the Senate held a marathon floor session to debate and vote on 99 bills, one lawmaker stood up and unleashed a series of allegations against the Senate president, requesting the chamber open an ethics investigation.
The allegations by Sen. Shelley Vance, R-Belgrade, stem from an article published by the Montana Free Press earlier this week, which laid out a series of actions taken by current Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, when he hired a lawyer using taxpayer funds during the 2023 session and interim period.
'It's a witch hunt,' Regier told reporters after the Senate adjourned, adding that every action he took was '100% legal and business as normal.'
This marks the second time the legislative auditor has been asked to look into waste, fraud and abuse allegations against a sitting senator. Earlier this year, an investigation into former president and current Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, began with the auditor and led to a full Senate Ethics Committee investigation, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on Friday morning.
Thursday, a substitute motion was made to ask the Legislative Auditor to look into the allegations and publish findings before the Senate takes further action.
According to the article Vance cited, Regier hired a private attorney 'to serve as his partisan lawyer' while Speaker of the House, despite legislative rules not allowing for the Speaker to have his own lawyer — he had to share one with then-Senate President Ellsworth. To change that rule, Regier brought forth a bill in 2023 for an additional partisan attorney, but the bill failed to pass.
Records cited by MTFP indicate Regier used public funds to pay attorney Abby Jane Moscatel $22,970 for the 2023 session.
Currently, Moscatel is under a joint contract by Regier and current Speaker of the House Brandon Ler, R-Savage, to provide legal services during the session.
In her motion, Vance requested the Senate refer a matter of ethics regarding the 'conduct of President Matt Regier' to the Senate Rules Committee.
She said she had read the MTFP article and was 'greatly troubled.'
'I believe we need to engage in further investigations,' Vance said.
She asked the committee to address the following questions:
Why Regier hired an attorney after the bill to authorize and fund the work failed;
Whether Regier engaged in 'waste, fraud and abuse' by hiring an attorney to perform legal tasks that the legal staff and legislative services typically perform;
Whether Regier acted unlawfully by using state resources to pay for legal services related to a private matter related to two constitutional initiatives last year;
Whether Regier engaged in waste, fraud and abuse by attempting to evade limits of spending authority;
Whether Regier acted unlawfully by directing his attorney to perform legal work on state and federal immigration laws without authority; and
Whether Regier failed to disclose a conflict of interest.
'Mr. President, these are many of the same issues raised in the matter involving Senator Ellsworth,' Vance said. 'Since we referred Senator Ellsworth to ethics, it only makes sense we begin a similar investigation into the current president of the Senate as well.'
Sen. Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, is currently under an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, as well as under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, for a contract he entered into last December with a business associate for $170,100.
Regier referred allegations of impropriety against Ellsworth to the Legislative Auditor, who released a memo that said Ellsworth's actions constituted waste of government resources and an abuse of power.
In response to Vance's motion, Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, made a substitute motion to send the questions about Regier to the Legislative Auditor.
'This would be consistent with the process that the former president went through,' Zolnikov said. 'We should attempt to stay consistent. Let the auditor do the report and let him do the findings. That will be intellectually honest and consistent.'
The Senate voted 34-16 to send the matter to the auditor, with Regier voting in favor. Vance and Ellsworth voted against the substitute motion.
'I'm happy to send it to audit and expect 100% exoneration, and then we can get back to really rooting out corruption,' Regier told reporters. 'I'm worried about corruption in this building, and how do we root that out. And if there's a cost to standing up to corruption, I'm ready to pay that.'
Ellsworth and Regier have been on opposing sides, despite being members of the same Senate majority party. On the first day of the session, Ellsworth and eight other Republican senators joined all Democrats in changing Senate rules decided on by the GOP leadership.
Since then, Democrats and the nine Republicans including Vance have formed a 'working majority' coalition to stymie Regier's agenda and push through some legislative priorities.
Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade released a statement about the allegations against Regier: 'Fairness, government transparency, and integrity are core values for my caucus and for our constituents. The allegations of activities of President Matt Regier are serious. We must have accountability in this matter and stay on track to deliver results for Montanans. A review of the allegations by the Legislative Auditor is an appropriate place to start.'
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