Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is under fresh scrutiny after a 2021 audio recording surfaced showing him in a closed-door meeting with members of the Somali community who were later convicted in one of the largest fraud schemes in state history.
The recording, obtained by Fox News, captures the group pressing Ellison for help securing more public funding before the discussion shifts to political donations.
“The only way that we can protect what we have is by inserting ourselves into the political arena. Putting our votes where it needs to be. But most importantly, putting our dollars in the right place. And supporting candidates that will fight to protect our interests,” one of the Somali community members says on the tape.
“That’s right,” Ellison replies.
The meeting took place before participants were later tied to massive fraud cases involving taxpayer-funded programs, including the $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme.
Ellison has denied any wrongdoing, saying he had no knowledge at the time that the people he met with were engaged in criminal activity.
“I took a meeting in good faith with people I didn’t know and some turned out to have done bad things. I did nothing for them and took nothing from them,” Ellison wrote in an April op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Records show Ellison accepted campaign donations from some of the individuals who were later convicted, though the Center for the American Experiment says he returned the money after their convictions.
The audio was first uncovered by Minnesota attorney Kenneth Udoibok, who represents Aimee Bock, a central figure in the Feeding Our Future case. Udoibok said state leaders should be held accountable for what he called a breakdown in oversight.
“I would like to see someone, someone in the state, I don’t care what if it is the governor, I don’t care what the attorney general, someone take responsibility,” Udoibok told Fox News.
“Mr. Ellison, your department that your agency represents have some culpability,” he added. “As much as I like Mr. Walz, he didn’t take responsibility on behalf of his agency. The buck stops with him, and in the worst-case scenario, he ought to have fired the commissioner. He ought to fire the director of the food program, somebody.”
The controversy is unfolding as Minnesota’s political leadership is already under intense pressure following the fraud scandal, which prosecutors say may total billions in stolen taxpayer dollars.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., plans to raise the 2021 recording during a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter.
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