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September 25, 2025
Abbey Lee Cook’s embezzlement from multiple Democratic-leaning political committees didn’t make the official agenda for September’s Montana Democratic Party convention, but Cook’s actions stirred controversy at the event nonetheless.
Attendees including former statewide candidate Jesse James Mullen told Capitolized that people were shouted down at the convention for suggesting that the party scrutinize relations between Cook and party employees. That came after images of staff socializing with Cook surfaced on social media, Mullen said.
On Sept. 9, Cook pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of federal wire fraud related to the embezzlement of more than $250,000 from Democratic campaigns and left-leaning political committees. Her sentencing is scheduled for January. Two 2024 Democratic candidates have also filed political practices complaints against Cook over claims she stole from their campaigns.
Mullen, the party’s 2024 candidate for secretary of state, said Democrats should make certain Cook wasn’t using stolen money to foot the bill for excursions with Montana Democratic Party staff.
“Did Cook pay for party staff to join her on vacations while she was stealing from donors? The current executive director and former finance director were shown dining and traveling with Cook,” Mullen said in his post-convention wrap that was posted online and emailed to media around the state. “If Cook paid for that travel while she was stealing from donors and still being recommended to candidates by the executive director and finance director, that’s a big problem.”
At one point during the convention, the party’s outgoing chair, Robyn Driscoll of Billings, told Mullen to shut his “effing mouth,” according to Mullen.
Driscoll didn’t respond to calls for comment from Capitolized placed to her cellphone. Prior to the convention, there was some confusion about whether the Montana Democratic Party had paid Cook for any political work. Hard copies of MDP finance reports for May and June of 2023 show the party disclosed paying Abbey Lee Cook and Associates $4,300 for compliance consultant services on May 16, 2023, and then another $1,800 on June 9, 2023, for the same purpose. On June 29 of that year, Cook’s firm refunded the same amounts back to the party.
The Cook scandal added another layer to concerns about party finances, Mullen said. At a convention luncheon to raise money for the party’s legislative campaign committee, one outspoken rural Democrat from Lincoln County said the committee spent little on campaigns by rural candidates.
Mullen has raised the specter of party financial issues before. In 2024, while running for office, Mullen accused the party’s campaign committees of not being transparent with its executive board about how $6 million was spent. After that pre-election Mullen accusation, flyers promoting the Democratic Party’s candidate slate for statewide offices omitted him. At the time, a spokesperson for the party said Mullen had removed himself from the group the flyer was produced for.
At the convention, voters obliged Mullen, who also owns and operates a group of newspapers around the state, with a rule change to require the party, its legislative campaign committee and coordinating campaigns to provide detailed financial reports to the party executive board.
The Mullen dustup was not the only dispute tied to Cook to arise at the party’s convention. Livingston police said in a press release after the event that they were asked to investigate alleged threats against Jayson O’Neill, a voting party delegate and longtime Democratic hand who was distributing flyers on the Saturday of the gathering promoting former legislator Mike Jopek for party chair. O’Neill worked for former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer and has sued current Gov. Greg Gianforte over executive privilege claims. He also has worked for several conservation organizations.
In a request for a temporary restraining order stemming from the interaction, O’Neill alleged in court documents filed in Helena justice court that he was threatened two separate times by fellow Democrat Jim Edwards, spouse of former party director Sheila Hogan. In his pitch for Jopek, O’Neill said party corruption deserved investigation — and he mentioned Abbey Cook.
“Mr. Edwards aggressively and repeatedly jammed his finger in my chest, threatening to slap me across [the] face and beat the shit out of me,” O’Neill wrote in a sworn petition for a temporary order of protection filed Sept. 16 in Lewis and Clark County. The corruption reference upset Edwards, O’Neill said.
Jopek did not return calls from Capitolized.
Delegates chose Shannon O’Brien over Jopek 112 votes to 39, this after former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester phoned in to endorse Jopek. Tester told voters that Montanans viewed the party as “woke and weak” and that Democratic campaigns had focused too long on blue urban districts to the detriment of rural candidates.
Days after the convention ended, newly elected Vice Chair Max Johansen resigned. He had criticised Tester in the press following the convention.
A court granted O’Neill’s temporary order of protection and set a hearing for Oct. 6 to determine whether to make the order permanent. Montana courts typically err on the side of protecting complainants in granting temporary orders.
Both O’Neill and Edwards referred questions from Capitolized to their attorneys.
“My client is deeply disappointed that the party leadership has done nothing to hold a deeply connected political operative accountable, following his physical and verbal assault of not only my client, but others,” said O’Neill’s attorney, Molly Woodman. “We are treating the threats against my client’s life and well-being with the seriousness that they deserve, especially given the unhinged nature of Mr. Edward’s behavior. My client and I will continue to work with law enforcement and use the court system resources to protect his and others’ safety from Mr. Edwards.”
Jessica Wilkerson, the attorney representing Edwards, didn’t return a call from Capitolized before publication. In an email Thursday evening, Wilkerson accused O’Neill of misusing Montana’s victim protection laws.
“Considering orders of protection are typically intended to protect victims of intimate partner and domestic violence, I am extremely concerned to see an individual using a tool vital to protecting vulnerable individuals in a manner that dilutes its effectiveness for those who actually need it. Mr. O’Neill’s petition alleges incidents that are readily disputed by credible witnesses. Mr. Edwards full-throatedly disputes the notion that he presents any threat, imminent or otherwise, to Mr. O’Neill and looks forward to presenting his case in court.”
Edwards has attempted to have the temporary restraining order against him dissolved, arguing in court that the order was improperly issued. But on Sep. 23, Lewis and Clark County District Judge Kathy Seely ruled that O’Neill’s sworn statements were properly weighed by the lower court that properly issued the order of protection. Seely denied Edwards’s request.
The facts of O’Neill’s account may be challenged later at the hearing on the order of protection, Seely said in her ruling, but not at the current stage of the case.
The city of Livingston issued a press release Sept. 16, two days after the convention, acknowledging a report of an interaction between O’Neill and another man, but said witnesses reported hearing no threats. The incident de-escalated when the man walked away, according to police.
The police depiction surprised Evan Barrett, a longtime policy advisor to several Democratic elected officials. In his request for a restraining order, O’Neill said that Edwards was seen shouting at Barrett in a third incident.
Barrett, 80, who walks with a cane, told Capitolized that he wanted police to have his statement in writing so it couldn’t be mischaracterized in an investigation summary. He declined to discuss the matter further.
“There are no sharks in Amity Bay,” Barrett said, borrowing a line from the epic 1975 shark movie “Jaws.”
— Tom Lutey
Democrats’ lobby hobby
The Montana Democratic Party during its officers’ convention earlier this month debated banning lobbyists from joining party leadership.
During the convention in Livingston on Sept. 13, a day before the vote to select a new executive board, Democrats discussed more than a dozen rule amendments — nine are now codified in the party’s bylaws — during an all-day session ahead of a rough-and-tumble leadership election. Days after that vote, the newly elected party vice chair resigned.
The proposed amendment would have blocked anyone who lobbied within the last two years from serving on the party’s executive board. That board is the group of Democrats responsible for selecting the party’s executive director and helping coordinate campaigns statewide.
“This is just a simple case of is your paycheck going to put you directly at odds with your responsibility as an executive board member?” Jesse James Mullen, a former statewide candidate and owner of newspapers around the state, said during the debate. “And that’s an absolute yes.”
Linda Schmitt, chair of Ravalli County Democrats, called lobbyists on the party’s executive board a “contradiction in terms.”
“I don’t want a lobbyist from NorthWestern Energy,” Schmitt said.
Amanda Frickle, who worked for the party until 2019 and is now the political director for Montana AFL-CIO, spoke against the amendment.
“I took it upon myself to read the Montana Republican Party rules. They have no such categorical exclusions, which would make the Montana Democratic Party more exclusive if you were to pass this rule,” Frickle said. “Is this gonna help us win elections? Elections are a game of addition, not subtraction.”
The party ultimately took a voice vote and the motion failed, meaning lobbyists remain eligible for party leadership.
None of the newly elected executive board members lobbied in the past two years. Pat Noonan, who sits on the board in a holdover position after serving as the most recent vice chair, will be the only registered lobbyist in party leadership.
Other bylaw amendments included minor adjustments aimed at cementing the structure and role of the executive board.
— Zeke Lloyd
Editor’s note: This story was updated Sept. 26, 2025, to include a comment provided after the newsletter was sent.
