Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) attacked Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for having accepted campaign donations from fraudsters who stole hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers.
The Missouri Republican highlighted reporting from The Post on the $10,000 in contributions from individuals linked to the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal that ran off with $250 million in taxpayer funds.
“You helped fraudsters defraud your state and this government of $9 billion — and you got a campaign contribution out of it,” Hawley erupted at Ellison. “You ought to be indicted.”
“Do you know where it went? What it was used for — the fraudulent money? I do, because we just heard testimony about it yesterday … hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists … international criminal organizations, to the drug trade, to drug trafficking, to child trafficking,” the senator continued.
“You took $10,000,” Hawley said.
“That’s a lie,” Ellison fired back.
“As early as 2019, a whistleblower—” Hawley began before Ellison interrupted him. Hawley added, “Don’t talk over me. … It’s my hearing, pal.”
“Don’t call me ‘pal,’” the Minnesota AG seethed.
“Well, I should call you a prisoner because you ought to be in jail,” Hawley thundered. “Whistleblowers came to you in your office and referred to you fraud allegations from Feeding Our Future, and you blew them off. Listen to your own state newspaper.”
“That’s a lie,” Ellison said again.
“The Minnesota Star Tribune,” Hawley recited, “Partners in Nutrition brought its concerns to the attorney general’s office in 2018 and in 2019. And you did nothing. You did nothing for years. The only action you took is once all these fraudsters came to your office and asked you to get involved and offered your money, not come and you got involved, then you have the money and then you got involved.”
Here’s the latest on the Minnesota fraud scheme:
Ellison retorted, “They did not come to my office. You’re completely wrong. … I did not see anybody.”
Hawley noted that the nearly hour-long meeting was captured on video and could be easily Googled. Ellison claimed that quotes from it deployed by the senator had been “cherry-picked.”
“No donations came,” the state AG also claimed.
“You should resign,” Hawley said in response.
“I was thinking the same thing about you,” Ellison replied.
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