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Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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?'
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Witnesses say Ellsworth's contract ‘not typical' during first ethics hearing
Senator Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, watches a vote during the Senate Floor Session on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) Five senators spent the majority of the first day of a week-long legislative break in a Senate Ethics Committee meeting where a fact-finding hearing into allegations of ethical impropriety lodged against Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, and a $170,000 contract he signed with a business associate. The four-member committee — comprising Republicans Tom McGillvray and Forrest Mandeville, chairperson, and Democrats Laura Smith and Chris Pope — heard testimony from two witnesses. Ellsworth did not attend the hearing in person, but was present via Zoom, as was his legal counsel, Joan Mell, who cross-examined the witnesses and lodged objections against the hearing process. Ellsworth has denied any impropriety and also submitted a $5 million claim alleging defamation and emotional distress from the process. Despite the full-day hearing, the committee only heard from its first two witnesses, Legislative Services Financial Manager Angie Carter and Deputy Director of Legislative Legal Services Jaret Coles. Both individuals testified to the timeline surrounding Ellsworth's efforts to enter into a $170,000 contract with Bryce Eggelston in the final days of 2025 — and final days of his tenure as Senate president. Emails among Ellsworth, Legislative Services and the Department of Administration lay out a six-day push to turn a pair of contracts Ellsworth and Eggleston signed to provide consulting services during and after the 2025 legislative session into a single, legally-binding contract, after the original bifurcated documents were flagged as 'problematic.' Carter testified that on Dec. 26, Ellsworth texted her and sent her an email from his personal email address with two signed contracts, each for roughly $87,000, along with invoices from Eggleston's company Agile Analytics. Adam Duerk, the staff attorney for the committee, asked Carter if that was typical practice for her office to receive signed contracts that had not undergone internal legal review. 'It is not typical,' she replied. She testified that she noticed the contracts did not have a payment schedule — they were to be paid in full, up front — and the payment wasn't directly tied to any deliverables, which she said is good practice for this kind of work. although an expectation of deliverables is a good practice – specify The missing pieces, and the avenue the contracts took by bypassing review of Legislative Services, were 'alarming,' Carter said. At several points during Carter's testimony, Mell, Ellsworth's lawyer, interjected, asking about the relevancy of the background testimony, when the Ethics Committee's purview for the hearing was specifically related to whether Ellsworth failed to disclose a conflict of interest. Questions regarding whether Ellsworth committed waste and abuse with the contract are part of a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, while the Senate is only looking into ethical allegations. Carter, and subsequently Coles, both testified that Ellsworth had never disclosed his professional or personal relationship with Eggleston while procuring the contract. Coles said that he often does legal review of contracts, and when he looked over the two sent his way, 'there were some things in those contracts that were definitely problematic, in my opinion, from a payment perspective, and the state's interest being protected.' As the contracts were payable immediately, Coles said many tools to ensure state resources would be spent in exchange for services or that the contract would be void if something happened with the vendor, weren't included. He also said the dual contracts raised questions, as they came in below $100,000, a limit that, if exceeded, would kick the contracts to the Department of Administration's procurement services. Coles testified that the decision among LSD staff was to rework the two contracts into a single, sole-source contract and work with the Department of Administration to get it approved. He filled out a form for the sole-source procurement — meaning the contract did not go out for public bid — after speaking with Ellsworth, which included a line that Ellsworth 'was unable to find anyone that could perform the services that are desired, other than through Agile Analytics.' The single contract was ultimately approved on Dec. 31, but was ultimately canceled in January after questions were raised by Republican leadership in the Senate. The state did not pay on the contracts. The Ethics Committee will reconvene on March 14 to continue hearing witness testimony. Ellsworth, who appeared at the hearing remotely, is also expected to conduct much of his business in the Senate remotely as well. The Hamilton Senator was not at his desk on March 5, and Senate President Matt Regier confirmed that Ellsworth received permission from Senate Majority Leader McGillvray to be gone for the rest of the session, citing health reasons. On March 3, Ellsworth's attorney submitted a claim for $5 million for 'Defamation, False Light-Invasion of Privacy, Tortious Interference, Intentional and Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress, Blacklisting' related to the allegations against him. The claim was filed against the State Senate, President Regier and members of his staff, the Legislative Auditor and legal staff in the auditor's office. Mell has maintained that the allegations against Ellsworth are false, and that testimony from Eggleston clearly shows that he did not commit any waste or abuse, or ethical violations. Ellsworth is 'is currently receiving medical treatment for his objective symptoms of harm and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future. He has been forced to take leave to address the health care consequences,' the claim states. 'The distractions and harm caused have interfered with his legislative duties, and he has been pressured to compromise his political beliefs and advocacy for the people of Montana to align with the majority in violation of his rights to his elective office and right to vote.'
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate Ethics Committee reconvenes, schedules first hearing on Ellsworth ethics allegations
Senator Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, watches a vote during the Senate Floor Session on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) The Senate Ethics Committee is back in action after a brief hiatus when the criminal and ethical investigations into the actions of Sen. Jason Ellsworth were referred to the Department of Justice for clarity. Last week, Attorney General Austin Knudsen said his office was opening a criminal investigation into a contract Ellsworth signed with a business associate late last year, but said that the ethical questions were outside his office's purview. As a result, the Ethics Committee chairperson announced last week it would resume its own review, and it met on Monday morning, the first meeting after a coalition of Senate Democrats and nine Republican Senators voted to pause the internal probe and send the matter to DOJ. During Monday's meeting, committee members reviewed a list of potential witnesses, voted to subpoena records, and set an initial hearing for March 7. The allegations against Ellsworth by the Ethics Committee were based on findings in a memorandum from the Legislative Auditor in January that found Ellsworth's actions in securing the $170,100 contract for Bryce Eggleston was an abuse of his power as Senate President at the time, and wasted government resources. Due to the concurrent DOJ criminal investigation, the committee is limiting its work to the ethical allegations, citing potential violations of section 2-2-112(3) of Montana Code Annotated, which lays out the ethical requirements for legislators. The specific charge is that Ellsworth failed to disclose a conflict of interest that 'would directly give rise to an appearance of impropriety regarding the legislator's influence, benefit or detriment.' Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, hired attorney Adam Duerk to represent the GOP majority leadership and assist the Ethics Committee. Duerk told the committee the criminal allegations had been removed from the scope of the internal investigation and laid out the existing scope of the matter. Duerk emphasized the need to afford due process to Sen. Ellsworth in the case — the basis for the earlier vote by the Senate to pause the Ethics Committee and send the investigation to an outside entity — and urged the committee to select a date to begin its adjudicatory hearing. 'To make it very clear, this is not a criminal matter. This is not a termination hearing either,' Duerk said. 'Our challenge here is to find the appropriate amount of due process.' The committee discussed holding its first hearing on March 7, the last day of the Legislature before the transmittal break. The two Democrats on the committee, Sens. Laura Smith, D-Helena, and Chris Pope, D-Bozeman, argued that a hearing at that time would come after several days where Senate floor sessions might extend late into the day as all introduced bills must be transmitted to the House by March 7 in order to continue the legislative process. They said trying to hold a hearing during the final transmittal day might be distracting and detrimental to the committee's work. 'I understand your concern,' Committee Chair Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus, said. 'We've been dealing with this now for longer than I can remember. … Part of the reason I'd like to move sooner rather than later… is that we had this set up and ready to go roughly a month ago.' Committee members ultimately voted to hold their first adjudicatory hearing on March 7. During the meeting, Ellsworth's attorney, Joan Mell, asked the committee to pause its work, given the DOJ's pending criminal investigation. 'The existence of a pending criminal investigation implicates fundamental due process rights as well as the rights against self incrimination,' Mell said. She added that it would be 'impossible' to continue with an ethics investigation without 'implicating Sen. Ellsworth's rights to a meaningful defense in this action.' The committee also reviewed the list of potential witnesses who may be called to appear before the committee. Among the witnesses listed are staff with the Legislative Audit Division, Legislative Services Division, and the Department of Administration — which approved the sole-source contract Ellsworth ultimately entered into — Senate President Matt Regier, Sens. Ken Bogner, Barry Usher and Greg Hertz; Eggleston, and lobbyist Scott Boulanger. One new name was added to the witness list — Bowen Greenwood, clerk of the Montana Supreme Court, who Ellsworth approached last year about creating a new position for which he told Greenwood that Eggleston would be well-suited. The committee also voted to subpoena records from the Motor Vehicle Division and Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to obtain lists of individuals living at two addresses in Stevensville, where Eggleston resides. The Senate Ethics Committee will next meet on Feb. 28.
