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The Montana Senate took steps today to remove Senator Jason Ellsworth of Hamilton from the Senate Ethics Committee and the Audit Division. Then, the Senate approved an investigation into his alleged actions. A floor vote during tomorrow's Senate session will finalize today's steps before the Senate awaits the results of the investigation to proceed further.
These steps were taken after a whistleblower exposed potential ethics violations and violations of state law. It is alleged that the Senator took steps to sign a sole-source contract for a known acquaintance. The first attempt to push the contract through appeared to have been two contracts for $80,000 each, an attempt to bypass the state law's requirement for contracts of $100,000 or more.
The investigation will determine if the alleged infraction occurred as the whistleblower states and, if so, if other ethics concerns arise, such as whether all signatures on the documents are authentic.
The Montana Sentinel will continue to track this story.
