Audio of Keith Ellison with Feeding Our Future defendants draws scrutiny

A recording of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison s meeting more than three years ago with a group including eventual defendants in the million Feeding Our Future fraud event has House Republicans renewing calls for transparency at the Attorney General s office During a December meeting a group of East African businesses that lost authorities funding amid suspicion of fraud flexed their political fundraising abilities and urged Ellison to help push back against state agencies standing in their way audio that in recent days came to light shows The meeting came just a month before the FBI raided Feeding Our Future s offices in January The nonprofit collected payments for millions of meals partner groups never served federal prosecutors allege The -minute recording is unused evidence from the trial of Aimee Bock the alleged ringleader of the million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme and was first published online this week by the conservative Minnesota think tank the Center of the American Experiment But the recording was never presented at trial because no state ruling body onlookers ended up testifying Aimee Bock left who founded and was executive director of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future and her attorney Kenneth Udoibok enter the U S District Courthouse in Minneapolis before jury selection Feb Ben Hovland MPR News House Republicans and the think tank have suggested that Ellison s telling the group he would check into their concerns with state administrators conflicted with his duty to represent state establishment They also point to later political contributions from an eventual defendant in the affair to his campaign The Attorney General must instantly release all residents documents and correspondence related to his meetings and conversations with these individuals and explain to the masses why he felt it was necessary or appropriate to meet with them let alone offer the backing of his office explained House Floor Leader Harry Niska R-Ramsey Ellison s office has claimed the attorney general himself was not aware of the ongoing dispute at the time but that his office had been defending the state against Feeding Our Future in court Brian Evans a spokesman for the Attorney General s Office declared the recording proved Ellison acted appropriately during the meeting despite the Center for the American Experiment s best efforts to smear Attorney General Ellison for partisan political reasons The Attorney General regularly meets with constituents hears their concerns in good faith and does his best to help people who need it which is exactly what the recording of this meeting shows he commented in a declaration It is a shame that these fraudsters tried to exploit the Attorney General s good faith engagement but they were not profitable A little less than a month after the meeting the FBI raided the offices of Feeding Our Future Ellison s office explained it never acted on any of the group s requests from the meeting and has disclosed it has no intention of keeping funds contributed by someone tied to the meeting that was charged more than two years after the initial raid Federal officers have charged people in the event since September As of March had pleaded guilty including Bock were convicted at trial and two have been acquitted December meeting In the recording a group calling itself the Minnesota Minority Business Association pushes on Ellison to help them challenge state bureaucrats freezing reimbursements to meal sites claiming agencies were discriminating against East Africans The Minnesota Department of Training attempted to freeze money going to rapidly growing meal sites that were reporting what personnel saw as improbable levels of expansion under looser rules during the pandemic However in June a Ramsey County judge detected the department in contempt for not paying Feeding Our Future reimbursements for meals in a timely manner Judge John Guthmann announced the department voluntarily resumed payments for meals though MDE explained the ruling left them under the impression they had to continue working with Feeding Our Future Ellison spent much of the meeting asking the group questions about their issues despite his office representing MDE against them This is the first I m really hearing about it Ellison explained telling the group his office has about staff and that he doesn t check on every single event they receive When someone on the recording mentions the Child and Adult Care Food Scheme which provided the federal money the state was giving to Feeding Our Future Ellison urged for an explanation Wait a minute what is that Ellison asks At the meeting were soon-to-be federal fraud defendants in the Feeding Our Future situation including Salim Mentioned who was convicted at trial last month alongside alleged ringleader Bock and owned Safari Restaurant one of the main meal sites in the occurrence Also present was Ikram Mohamed who was indicted in February Throughout the recorded conversation the group repeatedly touted its prospective for fundraising and offered financial advocacy to Ellison s campaign though Ellison is never heard asking for contributions or engaging in discussion about taking money Less than two weeks after the meeting Ellison received a contribution from Gandi Mohamed the brother of Ikram Mohamed who was also charged last year the Center of the American Experiment noted in its online article containing the audio Others present at the meeting also made contributions though they haven t been charged in the fraud situation according to the article Ellison s office says it has returned contributions tied to other Feeding Our Future fraud defendants and that his campaign has has no intention of keeping the funds from Gandi Mohamed who was charged in February In response to the group s requests for help with challenging state agencies Ellison first demanded for information on which agencies and administrators were a predicament for the group and in which programs He also sought for information on which meal provider nonprofits were struggling the greater part so he could bring them to the attention of Training Department functionaries I ll call them in my office and demand a few explanations he announced Kenneth Udoibok Bock s defense attorney at the trial explained the reason they had considered using the recording as evidence during the trial was that it would help show that his client was as surprised as particular state officers claimed they were by the fraud at Feeding Our Future But the recording was never presented at trial because no state cabinet bystanders ended up testifying Udoibok revealed Following the publication of the audio House Republicans on Thursday attempted to reintroduce a bill they tried to pass earlier in the session which would open more investigative records at the Attorney General s office a move which they argue would boost transparency DFLers opposed that bill when it first came up in February and it failed again in a tied party line vote as Republicans have seats requiring at least one member of the other party to join House DFLers say they oppose the bill because it could reveal sensitive investigative facts Related Articles Proposed tax on social media platforms in Minnesota could raise over M New MN office for missing murdered Black women and girls aims to build awareness MN House bill aims to assist families with child care costs Push to release Sen Nicole Mitchell arrest video gets new chance on appeal St Paul nonprofit pays M to turn Bandana Square hotel into exigency shelter