Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called on each other to resign from their respective positions after a heated exchange in a Senate homeland security committee hearing on Minnesota oversight.
Hawley grilled Ellison on the fraud scandals gripping Minnesota, focusing on a 2021 meeting between Ellison and several leaders who were later charged in the Feeding Our Future nonprofit organization’s COVID-19 fraud scandal, which was secretly caught on tape.
The exchange erupted when Hawley said Ellison deserved to be jailed for his actions.
“The people who ran the Feeding Our Futures program came to you in your official office in the state capitol on December 11, 2021, and asked for your help in getting investigators off their backs,” Hawley said. “You said to them, ‘Send me the names of all these folks who are investigating.’ You said to them, ‘Send me their names and I’ll take that list, and I’ll call the person over at education who is investigating them and say, ‘What’s going on? Why am I getting these complaints?’”
Ellison denied the two accusations that he helped or agreed to help the Feeding Our Futures leaders and told Hawley he was “cherry-picking quotes” out of the recording.
“My team assisted with the information that led to the prosecution and conviction of these people,” Ellison said.
Hawley accused Ellison of lying, and the two spoke over each other for several minutes.
The House oversight committee previously alerted Ellison to a tape recording of the meeting between the Gopher state attorney general and the Feeding Our Future leaders. Ellison was “caught on tape pledging to help Feeding Our Future fraudsters in a conversation that also included discussion of campaign donations from Somali community leaders,” according to Rep. James Comer‘s (R-KY), House oversight chairman, letter.
Hawley continued to blast Ellison over his exchanges with Minnesota fraudsters and said his campaign financially benefited from the leaders of the fraud ring. Ellison denied Hawley’s claims.
“Why’d you take their money? You took $10,000. $10,000, nine days after the meeting,” Hawley said.
“That’s a false statement,” Ellison said, as the two spoke over each other.
Ellison called Hawley’s line of questioning a “theatrical performance,” while Hawley fired back, “This is what accountability looks like.”
“You helped fraudsters defraud your state and this government of $9 million, and you got a fat campaign contribution out of it; you ought to be indicted,” Hawley said.
“That is completely untrue,” Ellison said.
The two repeatedly asked each other to stop talking over their statements.
“It’s my hearing, pal,” Hawley said.
“I’m not your pal, don’t call me pal,” Ellison said.
“Well, I should call you a prisoner, because you ought to be in jail,” Hawley fired back.
The two elected officials ended the exchange when Hawley said Ellison should resign.
“I was thinking the same thing about you!” Ellison responded.
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Ellison engaged in several heated lines of questioning during the hearing, including from Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Ashley Moody (R-FL). Johnson pressed Ellison on the Minnesota anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests and the protesters use of signal chats, which Democratic state Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was reportedly tied to, though she denied any connection to the coordinating chats.
Ellison testified in the first panel of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Oversight hearing on Thursday. He sat flanked by two other witnesses from Minnesota’s state government and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) as the fourth witness. However, Ellison largely fielded most of the questions from the Senate committee.