Contractor subpoenaed after declining ethics committee's call to testify in Ellsworth case

The consultant on the other end of a state-funded contract that sparked splintering investigations into Sen. Jason Ellsworth declined a legislative ethics committee's request for his testimony on Friday, prompting lawmakers to issue a subpoena to the Ravalli County Sheriff's Office.

Bryce Eggleston, the owner of Agile Analytics, notified the committee of his decision minutes before the Senate Ethics Committee's hearing kicked off on Friday morning, special counsel Adam Duerk told the committee.

In response, Duerk requested the four-member, bipartisan committee issue a subpoena for Eggleston's testimony, escalating the matter from a request to a civil matter. If he declines to abide by the committee's subpoena and appear on Saturday, a judge may be able to order his arrest.

Eggleston is the friend and business associate of Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican who signed the state into a $170,100 contract in the waning hours of 2024 to analyze the implementation of the GOP's judicial reform agenda.

GOP Senate probing $170K state contract legislator quietly awarded to business associate

Ellsworth is accused of violating ethics rules by not disclosing his relationship with Eggleston en route to contracting with him for work that legislators declined to seek a vendor for, largely because staff already conducts that sort of analysis. A legislative audit report determined in January that Ellsworth abused his government position in arranging the contract into two separate documents in a manner that unlawfully avoided the procurement process.

Friday was the second day of witness testimony before the Senate Ethics Committee, where lawmakers are on a fact-finding mission to synthesize information and testimony into a report for the Senate, which will decide whether, and to what extent, Ellsworth should be punished.

Department of Administration Director Misty Ann Giles on Friday outlined the "unusual" circumstances under which her office learned of the deal with Agile Analytics. Ellsworth had initially presented two signed contracts to legislative finance services, with invoices, ready to be paid before any work had been completed, she said. That set off a series of government staff decisions to reject the two contracts and work to "perfect" them into a single, workable document on which Giles eventually signed off.

Emails: Legislative staff blocked senator's initial request for controversial contract

Ellsworth had, Giles testified Friday, indicated in that process that he had the support of the Senate Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform to seek out the vendor to perform this work. Ellsworth last year was president of the Senate and assembled the select legislative committee, but when he proposed approaching a vendor to track those bills during the 2025 Legislature, the committee ultimately rejected the idea.

As for post-session analysis of those bills — the work specified in Eggleston's contract — the committee never discussed the matter on the record during its hearings.

"He (Ellsworth) just mentioned that the committee wanted to hire someone out to track these bills and implementation in a post-session environment to be sure they were being implemented in the judicial branch," Giles told the committee Friday.

Legislators told the Montana State News Bureau after the initial news story about the contract that they did not approve of or support Ellsworth's venture with Eggleston.

Giles also noted it was Ellsworth's responsibility, not Eggleston's, to disclose the personal relationship.

While state law does not forbid any government contracts between personal acquaintances, Giles added that it is considered a best practice in the field.

"If you do know a vendor, even if it's a personal relationship, a friendship, anything like that, it doesn't necessarily kick you out" of that business opportunity, Giles said. "I just think its best practice to disclose that — just because you never want the appearance that you're trying to do something inappropriate and put your thumb on the scale for someone you may know outside of that business context."

The committee also heard from Legislative Auditor Angus Maciver, whose office conducted the preliminary investigation that led to both the ethics committee proceedings and a criminal referral to the Montana Department of Justice.

Maciver was unable to speak with Ellsworth prior to submitting the initial report containing his office's findings, he said, because the senator appeared to be uninterested in answering the auditor's questions.

"He was reluctant to speak with us and answer questions," Maciver said. "He told us essentially was that he felt President (Matt) Regier accused him of crimes and that he felt that he needed legal representation. I told him that we did not accuse him of crimes and typically legal representation was not something we would expect for these kinds of situations."

Maciver tried again the next day by sending Ellsworth an email, through which Ellsworth could work up responses with an attorney. He said Ellsworth came to his office to complain to him about that email.

Legislative audit: Sen. Ellsworth's contracts 'illegal,' 'waste of state resources'

"He was pretty agitated," MacIver said. "I think he was annoyed at me that I had sent the email because it would be something that could be publicly accessible."

Duerk wrapped his witness list with Maciver on Friday. Ellsworth's attorney, Joan Mell, began calling her witnesses Friday afternoon.

Regier is expected to testify next when the committee meets on Saturday.