Senate Ethics Committee probes close relationship between Ellsworth and associate
Senator Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, watches a vote during the Senate Floor Session on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan)
A key witness in a Senate investigation skirted a subpoena to appear before the Senate Ethics Committee, and his video interview spurred criticism he was trying to avoid scrutiny.
Over three days this month, the committee heard testimony about a contract former Senate President Jason Ellsworth signed with his business associate and friend Bryce Eggleston, who declined to appear before the committee. The committee reviewed its findings Monday.
The testimony detailed the close relationship between the two — including Ellsworth's appearance at Eggleston's wedding — a relationship not disclosed during the procurement of the contract. Legislative Audit found the procurement process a waste of state resources and abuse of power, and its findings prompted the committee's investigation.
The committee is nearing the end of its weeks-long fact-finding mission into alleged ethical violations by Ellsworth, who has been participating in the Senate remotely. Neither Ellsworth nor Eggleston testified before the committee — Ellsworth on advice from his legal counsel, and Eggleston by pleading the Fifth and avoiding a subpoena to appear.
In response to the video statement by Eggleston, Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said he objected to a witness pleading the Fifth but providing a 'friendly' interview.
'He's able to lambast this committee as essentially a witch hunt without having to answer any questions from this committee. I found it highly one-sided and frankly, a bit upsetting,' said McGillvray, one of four members of the Senate Ethics Committee.
Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican who served as Senate President from 2023-2024, sought to hire Eggleston for consulting work related to a series of judicial reform bills stemming from an interim committee Ellsworth formed and led. The committee aims to establish whether Ellsworth improperly procured the state contract without disclosing his relationship with Eggleston, of Agile Analytics.
The nature of the deal, initially submitted as two nearly two identical contracts but later combined into a single agreement, and Ellsworth's behind-the-scenes rush to get them approved prompted the Senate to call for an investigation by the Legislative auditor into waste, fraud and abuse concerns, and a subsequent Ethics Committee investigation. Attorneys for the committee drafted a report summarizing the investigation's timeline and condensing weeks of work and hours of witness testimony into 27 proposed findings.
Among the draft findings, the committee report lays out the close personal and professional relationship between Ellsworth and Eggleston, which stretches back two decades; the 'highly unusual' situation by which the contracts came together; and several statements indicating Ellsworth had not disclosed his relationship with Eggleston to legislative and administrative staff during the contracting process.
The committee made several suggestions to revise the draft report and will review the amended findings on Tuesday morning. Once the report is approved, it will be sent to the full Senate body for consideration.
A separate simultaneous criminal investigation is underway at the Department of Justice.
At the committee's Saturday meeting, special counsel for the committee Adam Duerk informed members that a subpoena had been served to Eggleston but that he opted to assert his Fifth Amendment rights to not incriminate himself and declined to appear before the committee.
Instead, Duerk laid out that Eggleston and Ellsworth have a long documented history, including that Ellsworth employed Eggleston at one of his magazine subscription companies more than a decade ago.
A series of Facebook posts and photos, submitted as evidence with a signed declaration by Sen. Sue Vinton, R-Billings, cemented the personal relationship between the two.
Duerk told the committee that in 2018, Eggleston referred to Ellsworth as his 'friend, boss and mentor' in a post about Ellsworth's initial run for office. A photo from 2017 shows the two together at Eggleston's wedding, while another makes it appear the two were 'gym workout partners,' Duerk said.
Joan Mell, Ellsworth's attorney, shared a sworn video statement she conducted with Eggleston earlier in the week, which she said was done without knowledge that he would not appear.
The committee watched the hour-long video, in which Mell questioned Eggleston about his relationship with Ellsworth, and whether the former Senate president had any financial stake in Agile Analytics. Eggleston also stated that he thought the entire investigation appeared to be an attempt to publicly smear Ellsworth and himself.
'It seems like there's a concerted effort, politically motivated, to discredit Senator Ellsworth, and I am a casualty of that,' Eggleston said. 'I feel that my rights have been violated. I've been publicly lambasted.'
On March 7, 14 and 15, the Ethics Committee held hearings as part of its fact-finding mission, calling numerous witnesses involved in the contract process.
During Friday's hearing, the committee heard testimony from Misty Ann Giles, director of the Department of Administration, which oversees many procurement processes within state government; Ken Varns, an attorney with the Legislative Audit Division; Angus McIver, Legislative Auditor; Bowen Greenwood, Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court, and Todd Everts, the Legislative Code Commissioner.
Duerk questioned the witnesses and framed testimony as solidifying the allegations that Ellsworth made ethical missteps by failing to disclose his long-time relationship with Eggleston while contracting the work to someone with little-to-no experience in the political arena.
'In my expert opinion, in 20 years, I just believe it's best practice that if you do know a vendor — even if it's just a personal relationship, a friendship, anything like that, again, it doesn't necessarily kick you out — I just think it's best practice to disclose that just because you never want the appearance that you're trying to do something inappropriate, put your thumb on the scale for someone you may know outside of that business context,' Giles said during her testimony.
In later questioning by the committee, Giles said the situation would be 'much more problematic' had legislative and DOA staff not flagged the initial contracts, each for roughly $85,000, under the $100,000 ceiling that would have sent them to her department in the first place. Instead, staff worked to craft a better contract Giles said contained the state's usual terms and conditions.
The initial contracts were written to be paid for upfront, in full, and were not tied to any specific work products. The subsequent contract was to be billed and paid monthly.
'At least we were able to get it under our state terms, have the standard terminate-for-convenience language so that contract could be terminated,' Giles said. 'No funds went out the door, because we also changed those payment terms.'
The contract was cancelled before any payments were made.
Greenwood, who beat Ellsworth in a primary for the Clerk of Montana Supreme Court position in 2024, testified that Ellsworth had pitched Eggleston as a potential candidate for a communications job in the clerk's office in summer 2024, despite the job not existing.
'It wasn't my idea to begin with,' Greenwood said, but he had a few conversations with Ellsworth about the possibility.
'We were talking about the prospect of appropriating the money for this position, and we had just mentioned the salary, and he said he had somebody in mind, and it was, of course, Bryce Eggleston,' Greenwood told the committee.
Greenwood met with Eggleston, and earlier told the Daily Montanan he was 'not persuaded that it was a good idea,' and the prospective job never went any further.
In closing remarks, Mell emphasized the political nature of the investigation, taking aim at current Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, who initiated the investigation by the Legislative Auditor.
'I would just propose that you didn't need an investigation to know that Ellsworth knew Eggleston and trusted his work,' Mell said. 'In fact, that was the presenting complaint by President Regier. He went to the Legislative Auditor and precipitated a fraud, abuse and waste allegation, knowing of the relationship.'
'That's why it feels very politicized.'
The senate voted unanimously to convene the Ethics Committee in January.
Mell said that the work done by Ellsworth to follow up on a suite of legislation passed by the interim Judicial Oversight and Reform Committee was done on behalf of the Montana Legislature, to ensure judicial reform policies, a priority for Republicans, were enacted.
'This is an example where you had an extraordinary resource with an extraordinary senator who is willing to graciously afford you guys those resources to do good work,' Mell said. '… Ellsworth didn't want to fail. He didn't want to fail you, he didn't want to fail the public. And he was taking on an unprecedented, nearly insurmountable challenge to try to get the courts back in its own lane. Get it to respect the Legislature.'
Special Counsel Duerk focused his closing arguments on the principle of full disclosure at the heart of the state's ethics rules.
He reiterated many points from witness testimony that indicated the contracts Ellsworth procured and the manner they were crafted was 'an intentional evasion of any meaningful review and scrutiny.'
'I certainly can't tell you what to do as special counsel,' Duerk said. 'So I'd ask you to consider this question. Can anyone plausibly argue that there is no appearance of impropriety in the Agile contract after everything you've heard?'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


USA Today
9 minutes ago
- USA Today
New Jersey Democrat indicted over ICE facility altercation, calls charges 'political intimidation'
New Jersey Democrat indicted over ICE facility altercation, calls charges 'political intimidation' Show Caption Hide Caption Newark mayor Ras Baraka sues over arrest at ICE facility Newark mayor Ras Baraka announced he's suing two federal officials who he allege ordered his arrest at an ICE facility in New Jersey. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-New Jersey, was indicted on three counts related to a confrontation with law enforcement last month at a Newark immigration detention center. Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced the indictment on June 10. "While people are free to express their views for or against particular policies, they must not do so in a manner that endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve," Habba said in a post on X. McIver was visiting the facility along with fellow Democratic Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez. An altercation occurred after officers arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who attempted to join the trio in their visit. McIver is said to have then "slammed her forearms" into immigration officers, according to the criminal complaint against her. If convicted, she could face up to 17 years in prison for all three counts. Was it an overreaction? Trump deploys thousands of National Guard, Marines to Los Angeles The congresswoman has denied the accusations, saying they are unjustified. 'The facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation,' McIver said in a statement reacting to the indictment. Members of Congress, by law, can visit immigrant detention facilities unannounced. McIver's lawyer, Paul Fishman, who served as U.S. attorney in New Jersey during the Obama administration, said that the "legal process will expose this prosecution for what it truly is — political retaliation against a dedicated public servant who refuses to shy away from her oversight responsibilities." The indictment came the same day voters in New Jersey took to the polls to pick their Democratic and Republican nominees for governor. Baraka, whose arrest sparked McIver's standoff with officers, ran for the Democratic nomination but lost to Rep. Mikie Sherrill. Contributing: Sarah Wire, USA TODAY; Katie Sobko,


New York Post
26 minutes ago
- New York Post
Sen. Tom Cotton backs use of Insurrection Act to quell LA riots — 5 years after controversial NYT op-ed : ‘Overwhelming show of force'
President Trump should consider invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops to Los Angeles if the National Guard isn't able to stamp out violent riots plaguing the city, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday. Cotton's call comes almost five years to the date that he made the case for using the 1807 law to quell nationwide riots after the death of George Floyd, during Trump's first term. 'Violent insurrectionists turned areas of Los Angeles into lawless hellscapes over the weekend, with anarchists setting fire to vehicles, throwing scooters and debris at police, and looting businesses — all while waving foreign flags,' the Arkansas Republican wrote in the WSJ. 3 Cotton argued that the LA riots are 'worse' than the 2020 BLM riots. Toby Canham for NY Post The anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles, Cotton argued, are worse than the summer 2020 riots because of the presence of Mexican and Palestinian flags. 'Democrats also stood idly by or even celebrated as the Black Lives Matter riots ransacked our cities five years ago,' the senator wrote. 'If anything, these riots are worse.' 'At least the BLM rioters didn't wave foreign flags.' Trump, 78, has dispatched 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 active-duty Marines to help maintain order in LA and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they serve arrest warrants in the city. 'If the Guard alone can't restore order and protect federal officers and property, the president can use active-duty troops under the Insurrection Act of 1807, a law almost as old as the republic,' Cotton reminded the commander in chief. 3 Cotton's WSJ op-ed comes five years after he urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to riots after the death of George Floyd in police custody. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post 'Thus far, Mr. Trump has taken a measured approach and said he doesn't yet see a need to invoke the Insurrection Act,' he added. 'Let's hope that the National Guard, federal law enforcement and local police can end the anarchy and restore order to Los Angeles.' 'In addition to the overwhelming show of force, Congress also needs to show our support for federal law enforcement,' Cotton continued, announcing that he will introduce legislation to 'stiffen penalties for rioters who attack law enforcement and to make riot-related crimes a deportable offense for noncitizens.' 3 The Insurrection Act allows the president to authorize military troops to suppress riots. Toby Canham for NY Post Cotton's 2020 New York Times op-ed, titled 'Send in the Troops,' led to outrage within the walls of The Gray Lady. Under pressure from staffers, the Times attached a lengthy note to Cotton's piece indicating that the editorial process was 'rushed' and that 'senior editors were not sufficiently involved.' Cotton's piece this time around was titled, 'Send In the Troops, for Real.' The Insurrection Act was last used by former President George H.W. Bush in 1992 to stem the riots that broke out in Los Angeles after four cops were acquitted of beating Rodney King. The act authorizes the president to use military force domestically to suppress insurrections, rebellions, or civil disorder. It serves as an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits military involvement in civilian law enforcement. 'If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see,' Trump has said about using the 19th-century law.


New York Post
36 minutes ago
- New York Post
Biden admin evacuated 55 Afghans on terror watchlist to US during botched withdrawal: DOJ watchdog
US officials encountered 55 Afghan evacuees on the terrorist watchlist after the Biden administration's chaotic 2021 withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country, according to a Justice Department inspector general report. The report, released Tuesday, confirmed longstanding suspicions from Republican lawmakers that the Biden administration failed to properly vet US-bound refugees as the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan. 'I've sounded the alarm about the need to thoroughly vet Afghan evacuee applicants since August 2021,' Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement, reacting to the DOJ IG report. 'The Biden-Harris administration, my Democrat colleagues in Congress and many in the media were quick to dismiss glaring red flags that a nonpartisan national security analysis now confirms.' 3 Grassley charged that the Biden administration endangered the lives of Americans by allowing improperly vetted Afghan refugees into the US. AP The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) identified 55 Afghans that were either already on the terrorist watchlist and made it to a US port of entry or were added to the database during the evacuation and resettlement process, the report found. Of those, at least 21 were added to the terror list after they had already entered the US. After investigations, the FBI eventually removed 46 evacuees from the watchlist, determining that they posed no threat to the homeland. However, nine remained in the terror database as of July 2024 and eight were in the US. 'As if it wasn't already obvious, the Biden-Harris administration endangered American lives by allowing suspected terrorists to enter the United States and roam free for years,' Grassley argued, noting that his 'oversight of this matter will continue.' Roughly 90,000 Afghans were allowed entry into the US and became eligible for Special immigrant Visas under the Biden administration's Operation Allies Refuge (OAR) and Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) programs, which provided the foreign nationals immigration processing and resettlement support. 'According to the FBI, the need to immediately evacuate Afghans overtook the normal processes required to determine whether individuals attempting to enter the United States pose a threat to national security, which increased the risk that bad actors could try to exploit the expedited evacuation,' the DOJ IG report stated. Despite the 55 individuals flagged, the DOJ inspector general determined that overall 'each of the responsible elements of the FBI effectively communicated and addressed any potential national security risks identified.' 3 The Biden administration hastily evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans as the country fell to the Taliban in 2021. AFP via Getty Images 3 As of July 2024, eight Afghans on the FBI's terror watchlist were still in the United States. AP Last October, the DOJ charged an Afghan national brought into the US during the chaotic withdrawal with plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack. Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was living in Oklahoma City on a Special Immigrant Visa as he took steps to stockpile AK-47 rifles and ammunition to carry out an attack on US soil 'in the name of ISIS,' according to the Justice Department. Tawhedi entered the US on Sept. 9, 2021, just weeks after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan and the last US troops departed from the war-torn nation. Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and is currently awaiting trial.