HELENA — Sen. Jason Ellsworth, a former Montana Senate president, didn’t appear in person in a Helena courtroom Thursday morning, but he did appear by video, pleading not guilty to a charge of official misconduct.
Ellsworth had his arraignment before state District Court Judge Chris Abbott.
State prosecutors charged Ellsworth with one count of official misconduct, a misdemeanor, last month. It came ten months after the Montana Attorney General’s Office began investigating his handling of state contracts – an issue that upended the 2025 legislative session.
In December 2024, while he was serving as Senate president, Ellsworth signed off on a $170,000 contract with a former business associate, to track a series of judicial reform bills proposed before the session.
Prosecutors argue Ellsworth didn’t follow proper requirements when taking bids for a state contract, and that his original decision to split the contract into two smaller ones appeared to be a way to get around state procurement requirements.
Ellsworth has always denied wrongdoing and claimed the investigations into his actions were politically motivated.
Abbott took over Ellsworth’s case from Judge Kathy Seeley, who ordered last month that Ellsworth be suspended from the Senate until the case is resolved.
State law says a judge may suspend an official without pay when they’re charged with official misconduct. If the official is acquitted, they can return to office; if they're convicted, they will be permanently removed.
Ellsworth’s attorneys have argued the entire case should be dismissed and Seeley’s suspension order should be overturned. They say the actions in question were part of his legislative duties, and that constitutional provisions protect him from criminal prosecution for those acts.
“As it stands right now, the affidavit is all about his legislative activity,” Joan Mell, one of Ellsworth’s attorneys, said Thursday. “There is no activity referenced anywhere in the information, there's no activity referenced anywhere in the affidavit in support that is unrelated to his legislative activities – for which he’s absolutely immune.”
The defense’s motion argues only the Senate has the authority to punish Ellsworth, and that senators already decided during the session to remove him from committees but to leave him in office.
Prosecutors have not yet submitted their response to the claims about legislative immunity, but they will in the coming weeks.
Defense attorneys also requested to delay Thursday’s arraignment, because the original charging documents contained a typographical error in the citation of the law Ellsworth is charged with violating. They argued that would require another arraignment once it was corrected. However, Abbott ruled the error wasn’t substantial and said it could be corrected without delaying the case.
“There's a public interest, for Mr. Ellsworth’s benefit, of getting this thing done sooner than later,” he told Ellsworth’s attorneys. “I think you would agree with that.”
Abbott set a hearing on the legislative immunity claims for March 12. He scheduled a potential jury trial on the official misconduct charge for July 14.
