HELENA — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s office says his department will begin a criminal investigation into former state Senate President Sen. Jason Ellsworth — but that they don’t have any jurisdiction over possible ethical violations.
Last week, both the Senate and the Legislative Audit Division referred their investigations to the Montana Department of Justice. In a statement, a DOJ spokesperson said “the Attorney General has a duty to investigate any criminal allegations referred to the Department by the legislative auditor.” They said the department’s Division of Criminal Investigation will look into potential criminal conduct, and that they won’t share any additional information on an ongoing investigation.
Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, has been accused of “abuse and waste” in his handling of a state contract. Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, asked the Audit Division to look into Ellsworth's reported approval of a $170,000 contract with a former business associate. LAD said their investigation had identified “apparent violations of state law,” but that the best place to determine how to proceed with the allegations was a law enforcement agency.
Regier had asked Knudsen to clarify whether DOJ would investigate any allegations that Ellsworth violated the Legislature’s Code of Ethics. In a letter Wednesday, Knudsen told Regier the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, not DOJ, was responsible for investigating alleged ethical violations, and that only the Legislature had the authority to enforce the code against lawmakers.
The Senate Ethics Committee was set to begin hearings on Ellsworth’s actions this month, but Democrats and a group of nine Republicans voted to delay those proceedings while referring them to the Department of Justice.
Ellsworth told MTN Wednesday that he expected he would receive due process from the Department of Justice. He said he didn’t believe the Ethics Committee process should be able to resume until after the DOJ investigation is completed.
Ellsworth has denied that he tried to go around proper procedures for awarding state contracts, and his attorney told MTN this week that the referral to DOJ hadn’t taken into account documents that supported Ellsworth’s version of events.
