A criminal trial begins Tuesday for an embattled Republican state senator accused of attempting to improperly direct a state contract to a longtime friend.  Jason Ellsworth, of Hamilton, was charged by the Montana Department of Justice with official misconduct, a misdemeanor, in December 2025. The charging documents accuse Ellsworth of using his official role to secure a personal advantage beyond the bounds of the law. He has pleaded not guilty and said recently that he expects to be exonerated. If convicted, Ellsworth could be fined as much as $500 and sentenced to up to six months in jail. The trial is scheduled for eight days, though the proceedings may not require all that time. In the final days of 2024, Ellsworth tried to contract his friend’s company, Agile Analytics, using $170,100 in public funds he controlled at the time as a member of legislative leadership. The money Ellsworth was using to fund the arrangement was left over from a special judicial reform committee that Ellsworth, who was president of the Senate at the time, formed in 2024.  Ellsworth’s friend and former business partner, Bryce Eggleston, was to track the progress and implementation of the 27 bills drafted by Ellsworth’s special judicial committee, a task for which Eggleston had no particular expertise.  But before the final contract was approved, emails between Ellsworth and state staff revealed that the Hamilton senator had delivered two nearly identical contracts totaling $170,100, but each individually below $100,000, the threshold at which they would have to go out to public bid. Legislative staff rejected the use of two contracts, according to the emails. State auditors later theorized that the arrangement was designed to “unlawfully avoid oversight,” but Eggleston later said under oath during a legislative hearing that it was his idea, not Ellsworth’s, to divide the contract.  The jury trial in Lewis and Clark County District comes after months of political fallout from the attempted deal, which became a hallmark of the 2025 legislative session. That chaos gripped the Legislature’s upper chamber despite the fact that no money ever changed hands once the deal was revealed, in part because Ellsworth and Eggleston backed out of the arrangement once it came to light. Ellsworth was ultimately banned for life from the Senate floor, but his colleagues stopped short of expelling him.  Senate President Matt Regier, a Kalispell Republican and one of Ellsworth’s political adversaries, reported the attempted business deal to the Legislative Audit Division’s fraud, waste and abuse hotline, Regier said at the time. State auditors said the arrangement constituted a “waste of state resources” and called it “illegal.” Ellsworth and one of his attorneys, Joan Mell, have long maintained that Ellsworth is being persecuted by political foes.  It’s unclear who will testify during the trial, but, according to court filings, the governor’s Budget Director Ryan Osmundson, legislative auditor Angus Maciver, former head of the Department of Administration Misty Ann Giles, multiple current legislators and a slew of legislative staffers have been subpoenaed. If convicted, Ellsworth, who has served in the state Senate since 2019, could be required to permanently forfeit his office as a public servant. Ellsworth’s current Senate term expires early next year. In a surprise move, he filed earlier this year as a candidate for House District 34 in eastern Montana, hundreds of miles from his current district. Ellsworth lost the Republican primary to the incumbent in that district by nearly 72 points, guaranteeing that he won’t serve in the 2027 legislative session.  The post The criminal trial for Republican state Sen. Ellsworth begins Tuesday. Here’s what to know. appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less