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Senate President Matt Regier is changing lawyers after Senate Democrats objected to his pick as outside counsel to help in an ethics investigation into Hamilton Sen. Jason Ellsworth.
Earlier this week Regier announced he’d hired Matthew Monforton, a Bozeman-based lawyer, to work for himself and the GOP majority leadership and take on a “prosecutorial” role in the ethics committee.
However, Senate Democrats expressed reservations about Monforton’s role with the committee due to his contract naming Regier as the client, his history of partisanship, and recent social media posts disparaging Ellsworth.
Sen. Laura Smith, D-Helena, a former prosecutor, told the Senate Ethics Committee on Wednesday she was not comfortable working with Monforton, and wasn’t sure they even needed outside counsel.
“Our citizens need to see an ethics process that’s fair,” Smith said, saying any outside counsel should guide the committee by being “unbiased, diligent and fair.”
Smith suggested they use in-house attorneys, or find someone mutually agreeable to all members of the committee.
On Thursday morning, Regier sent out an email to reporters indicating he is in the process of hiring a new attorney, Adam Duerk from Missoula, a highly qualified attorney “without any of the political history” that Monforton had.
“Senator Ellsworth has his own outside legal counsel. I believe very strongly that it’s important for the Senate to also have legal counsel in this matter,” Regier said in his email. “There is no reason at this point for further objections or delays to the Senate Ethics Committee’s important work. The people of Montana expect the Legislature to investigate and resolve allegations of impropriety in a timely manner, and it’s time for the Ethics Committee to proceed accordingly.”
Reached by phone on Thursday morning, Duerk said he would not comment on a matter pending before the Senate.
Monforton, who attended the organizational meeting of the Ethics Committee Wednesday afternoon, told the Daily Montanan that based on what he heard, he believes “Democrats are heavily invested in Ellsworth and don’t want a prosecutor advocating for anything more than a slap on the wrist.”
At the start of the 69th Legislature, Senate Democrats, Ellsworth and eight other Republicans joined in a vote to change Senate rules related to committees, opposing Regier and GOP leadership.
A spokesperson for Senate Democrats said they are more optimistic about Duerk, appreciate the good-faith effort by Regier to address their concerns, and hope to meet with Duerk before fully endorsing his work with the Ethics Committee.
At its organizational meeting Wednesday, the Senate Ethics Committee discussed its rules and schedule for the investigation into Sen. Ellsworth.
The bipartisan Senate committee, comprising two Republicans and two Democrats, will hold hearings in February to determine whether actions Ellsworth took to enter a $170,100 no-bid contract with a business associate last year violated the state’s code of ethics, or any legislative or state laws.
Members of the committee emphasized that their role is to be an independent fact-finding body, which will ultimately make a report and recommendation to the full Senate chamber to vote on “whether good cause is shown to expel or punish” Ellsworth.
“We want to get to the facts of the case. We want to do it expeditiously,” Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said. “We don’t want to drag this out forever.”
Under the rules adopted by the committee, Ellsworth will have four days after an initial meeting on Feb. 3 to provide a written response to the allegations of misconduct against him, and a list of witnesses, documents and records that pertain to the investigation. The committee will then conduct hearings
Ellsworth tried to speak during the committee’s meeting, but was overruled by chair Sen. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus.
The contract Ellsworth signed tasked his associate to analyze a series of judicial reform bills and their implementation after the session, but was flagged by legislative staff and senate leadership for skirting normal procurement rules. A recent report form the Legislative Audit Division concluded Ellsworth abused his powers as then-Senate president, and wasted government resources.
The next meeting of the Senate Ethics Committee will be on Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. in the old Supreme Court chambers.