Montana Politician Faces Jail Time, Fine for Alleged Role in Improper State Contract

State Sen. Jason Ellsworth (R-Hamilton) faces jail time after an investigation found he allegedly submitted an improper contract for a business partner.

The Montana Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Ellsworth last week with a misconduct charge, which could land the state senator in county jail for up to six months and result in a $500 fine.

The state DOJ asked the court to suspend Ellsworth from his position until this legal matter is resolved.

Montana’s DOJ accused Ellsworth of violating the ethics rules governing the use of public funds by failing to properly advertise, entertain bids or obtain state review of a contract over $100,000 with the State of Montana.

If found guilty, Ellsworth may have to permanently forfeit his state Senate seat.

The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation launched an investigation into Ellsworth in February after a referral from the Legislative Auditor Angus Maciver.

According to the affidavit, Ellsworth proposed hiring an outside governmental firm to help track bills on Nov. 14, 2024; however, other senators dismissed the idea. The state senator again proposed the same concept on Dec. 14, 2024, and again his colleagues rejected it, the affidavit said.

Almost two weeks later, after Ellsworth’s idea was rejected a second time, he submitted identical contracts totaling $171,000 to the state. The contracts were split into amounts under $100,000, which prevents their public disclosure. In Montana, contracts over $100,000 are subject to being made public.

Ellsworth and Bryce Eggelston had signed the contracts.

Eggelston is a business partner of Ellsworth, who created Agile Analytics, for which the contracts were billed. Eggelston created this company under the name Agile XO in July 2024, but restructured it in December 2024 to where he was the “sole owner, investor and employee,” the affidavit noted.

On Dec. 27, a day after Ellsworth submitted the two contracts to Eggelston, a Montana legislative attorney advised him not to submit the contracts, but he did anyway, the affidavit stated.

After Ellsworth submitted the contracts, the Montana Department of Administration combined the two into a single contract with a 24-month payment period, the affidavit noted.

Four days later, Ellsworth signed the contract, the affidavit said.

After the 2025 legislative session began, state Senate President Matt Regier (R-Kalispell) became aware of the contract and reported it to the state’s fraud, waste and abuse hotline, the affidavit noted.

Regier told state investigators he became concerned about the contract after reviewing Eggelston’s “lack of qualifications,” the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Ellsworth submitted an invoice to Agile Analytics on Jan. 10 for $7,087.50 for its “reported working on data gathering and analysis prep.” Eggelston told state investigators that “he had never started or performed any work before the final contract was terminated on Jan. 19,” the affidavit noted.

The Montana Legislative Audit Division submitted a memo five days after the contract was canceled, stating that Ellsworth had abused his position and wasted state resources, the affidavit said.

On Jan. 27, the state Senate Ethics Committee launched an investigation into Ellsworth, which found that he had “abused his position and wasted resources.”

On April 1, the state Senate voted to remove Ellsworth from the Senate floor for life and to ban him from committees for two years.

Regier said in a statement that he was “once again grateful to the bipartisan majority of the Senate who voted to uphold the integrity of the legislature and remove Jason Ellsworth from office, even though we fell short of the two-thirds threshold needed to remove him.”

“The only reason Ellsworth is still a state senator is because most Democrats and nine Republicans, including Sen. Shelley Vance (R-Belgrade) and Sen. Wendy McKamey (R-Great Falls), voted three different times to keep him in office instead of removing him for his years-long pattern of unethical and potentially criminal activity,” he stated.

“I applaud Attorney General Austin Knudsen for taking corruption in government,” Regier added.

State Sen. Ken Bogner (R-Miles City) said in a statement that Regier “saved taxpayers from illegal activity by initiating the legislative audit that the nonpartisan Auditor referred to the Department of Justice.”

“President Regier was also the one who kept Senator Ellsworth from facing even worse charges by stopping payment of the invoices to Ellsworth’s friend and shutting the whole scheme down,” the state senator said.

“Ellsworth should’ve been thanking Regier instead of spending the whole legislative session retaliating against the Senate President as well as other senators and staff,” he added.