Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on Thursday called for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to resign and suggested he should face criminal charges, accusing him of assisting people later charged in a sprawling welfare fraud scheme.
The confrontation came during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing in which Hawley questioned Ellison, an elected Democrat, about his actions surrounding the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which was at the center of a $250 million scheme to defraud a child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hawley pointed to a meeting in December 2021 between Ellison and people who were later indicted, arguing that the Minnesota attorney general surreptitiously attempted to help them during what public records say was a 54-minute encounter.
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Hawley said Ellison accepted $10,000 in campaign donations days after the meeting from individuals later charged.
“You helped fraudsters defraud your state and this government … and you got a fat campaign contribution out of it,” Hawley said, yelling, “You ought to be indicted.”
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Hawley later added that Ellison “ought to be in jail.”
“Well, see what you can do about it,” Ellison shot back.
The Minnesota attorney general forcefully denied the accusations, saying Hawley was “cherry-picking quotes” and mischaracterizing the meeting. Ellison said he did not help the defendants. His office assisted with information that led to prosecutions and convictions in the broader investigation, Ellison said.
The entire exchange was loud and contentious as both men interrupted one another, prompting committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to interject at one point and call for lowering the temperature.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland called the Feeding our Future case the largest pandemic-related fraud in the country, and dozens of individuals, mostly of Somali descent, have been charged.
Attorney General Pam Bondi recently intensified the department’s investigations into fraud in Minnesota, sending additional manpower to the embattled U.S. attorney’s office there to help with ongoing inquiries into possible fraud across several welfare programs.