Senate Ethics Committee adopts final report detailing facts of Ellsworth contract
The Montana Senate is seen during the Wednesday, February 12, 2025 session. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan)
The Senate Ethics Committee on Wednesday adopted its final report detailing the factual findings related to Sen. Jason Ellsworth's rushed attempt to procure a $170,100 contract for a friend and business associate, Bryce Eggleston.
More than seven weeks after the Senate voted unanimously to convene the ethics panel to investigate allegations into impropriety by Ellsworth, the four members finalized their task with a 34-page report. The committee's findings will go to the full Senate body, which will establish its own conclusions and determine whether to punish Ellsworth, which could range from a censure to expulsion from the Senate.
No timeline has yet been established for the Senate to review the findings, but Chairperson Forrest Mandeville said the committee completed a significant task.
The 62 findings, an amalgamation of documents and three days of hearings, lay out a two-decade friendship and professional relationship between Ellsworth and Eggleston; reference interim committee meetings when Ellsworth proposed hiring someone to do similar work on a part-time basis, which the committee rejected; detail the six-day push by Ellsworth, legislative and Department of Administration staff to make the agreement conform to state procurement rules; and account for the numerous times when Ellsworth could have disclosed his conflict of interest due to his pre-existing relationship with Eggleston.
Because the committee's task was to present facts to the Senate body to consider, the report's conclusion states that the witnesses who testified were credible, and that 'this report is an accurate findings of fact relevant to the allegation referred to the Senate Ethics Committee.'
During three days this week, committee members worked through drafts, with Democrats on the committee pushing for the majority of the revisions, citing a desire to closely adhere to the committee's fact-finding mission. .
'I am unconcerned by the harshness of any statements made, I am concerned about them being factually accurate,' Sen. Laura Smith, D-Helena, said on Monday. 'That's why I keep going back to 'Let's put in the facts. Let's put in quotes from the testimony. Let's build it in a way that people can understand.''
Adam Duerk, who served as special counsel for the ethics committee, cautioned if 'they're clear and harsh but absolutely true, we consider carefully before much revision is made.'
During Wednesday's meeting, the committee debated additions Smith, who is a former federal prosecutor, suggested, ultimately including statements from Eggleston's submitted video testimony that Ellsworth had no financial interest in Eggleston's company, Agile Analytics, but that the committee received no documentation to confirm or deny those statements.
The committee learned Ellsworth had a close personal relationship with Eggleston, which the senator failed to disclose prior to inking the contract.
Other proposed changes that prompted committee discussion revolved around the testimony of Legislative Auditor Angus Maciver, who substantiated allegations that Ellsworth's actions amounted to waste and abuse.
Earlier versions of the report spent several paragraphs delving into conclusions reached by Maciver, which Smith said was outside the scope of the committee.
'I really struggle with this idea that we would include someone else's conclusion about the facts, and I think this borders the line between the questions of fact and the questions of law,' Smith said, adding that citing the auditor's testimony was better than citing his office's conclusions.
Duerk pushed back, saying that since the auditor's memo 'itself is a fact,' both the testimony and memo carry 'considerable' weight.
'All of this … addresses the appearance of an impropriety,' he said.
A separate criminal investigation is underway at the Department of Justice.
The ethics investigation – which stretched out weeks longer than initially anticipated — created substantial additional work for the four senators assigned to the committee, as well as legislative staff, and committee members expressed satisfaction with completing their mission.
Mandeville thanked the committee members and staff for their time and work ethic throughout the process before he gaveled the committee adjourned.
'That was my favorite gavel,' he said.
signed Report and Findings of Fact with attachments
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