Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is calling for the indictment of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) over accusations that he accepted campaign contributions from Somali fraudsters for helping them evade investigation by state and federal officials.
During a Senate Homeland Security hearing on Thursday, Hawley grilled Ellison about a report from the New York Post published last year that accuses the top Minnesota official of taking campaign contributions from Somalis involved in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, where some $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen under the guise of feeding needy children.
According to the report, Ellison accepted several $2,500 campaign donations from Somali fraudsters after they raised concerns that federal investigators were unjustly looking at their financials.
“You are familiar with the $9 billion in historic fraud out of your state, including the $250 million in the Feeding Our Future program alone?” Hawley asked Ellison, to which he responded, “I am familiar with it.”
“Because the people who ran the Feeding Our Future program came to you in your official office in the state capitol, December 11, 2021, and asked for your help in getting investigators off their backs,” Hawley said.
He continued:
They complained to you for upwards of an hour about state investigators going after them, and they begged you to help them, and you agreed to it amazingly, and we know you did. That’s because it’s all caught on tape …why’d you help them? [Emphasis added]
Ellison denied helping the fraudsters, to which Hawley said Ellison had accepted “$10,000 from them nine days after the meeting.”
“You helped fraudsters defraud your state and this government of $9 billion, and you got a fat campaign contribution out of it. You ought to be indicted,” Hawley said. Ellison responded by accusing Hawley of lying.
“No, this is all on the record, sir. Did you bother to investigate where the money that you facilitated their fraud for, where it went? Do you know where it went, what it was used for, the fraudulent money?” Hawley continued. “I do because we just heard testimony about it yesterday … hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorist groups, to transnational criminal organizations, to the drug trade, to drug trafficking, to child trafficking, and you took $10,000 and helped them do it.”
Hawley also told Ellison that he should resign as Minnesota’s attorney general.
As of last December, 85 people have been charged in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal — nearly all of whom are of Somali descent. The investigation has led to 60 convictions thus far.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
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