Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison appears to have lied to the United States Senate in testimony he gave last month before the Senate’s Homeland Security committee.
The occasion was a February 12 committee hearing at which Ellison appeared to discuss the subject of ICE operations in Minnesota
The untruthful testimony from Ellison involved a different issue, namely, $10,000 in campaign donations received by Ellison from figures linked to the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal.
It came during a back and forth between Ellison and committee member Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). The Ellison/Hawley interaction begins at the hearing’s 1:37:47 mark.
Here is a video of the exchange in question:
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
Hawley: Why’d you take their money? Why’d you take their money?
Ellison: Take their money? I didn’t. No, that’s a false statement.
Hawley: You took ten thousand dollars
Ellison: No that’s a false statement.
Hawley: Ten thousand dollars
Ellison: No, that’s a false statement.
Hawley: Nine days after the meeting.
Ellison: False statement.
Hawley: You took ten thousand dollars.
Ellison: Untrue
Hawley: Here’s what happened. They went to your office.
Ellison: That’s a false statement.
Hawley: They solicited money from you, they solicited help from you
Ellison: They did not come to my office, that’s also wrong.
Hawley: They came to your office, it was your official office. You met with them for 54 minutes.
Ellison: No they didn’t. No they didn’t. No they didn’t.
Hawley: They asked you for help. You pledged it to them. And they talked repeatedly about money. In fact, it’s all they talked about.
Ellison: That’s a lie.
Hawley: Money, money, money, money.
Ellison: Not true. Untrue.
Hawley: They said, “We will put our dollars in the right place. We will support candidates that will fight to protect our interests.” You replied, “That’s right.”
Ellison: No, that is not true.
Hawley: They said, “If you are secure in your donor base and secure in your power base, you can act the way you want.” You replied, “Money is freedom.” They said the amount of money circulating — I’m reading the transcript —
Ellison: No, you’re misreading the transcript.
Hawley: “The amount of money circulating in our community today is powerful and we haven’t realized in a meaningful way.” And you said, “Give me the specifics.” And nine days later you took ten thousand dollars.
Ellison: That’s a lie.
Hawley: From people who were then indicted. It’s in your reports! Why’d ya do it? Was it worth it?
Ellison: You know what? This is a theatrical performance It has nothing to do with…no, no, no
Hawley: Ten thou — this is the truth. This is what accountability looks like, of which you’ve had none. You helped fraudsters defraud your state —
Ellison: Lie.
Hawley: — and this government of nine billion dollars and you got a fat campaign donation out of it.
Ellison: Sir, this is completely untrue.
Hawley: You ought to be indicted. That’s the truth.
By my count, Ellison denied taking campaign contributions nine separate times in this short exchange with Sen. Hawley. Ellison also repeatedly denied that the meeting took place in his official office. He’s right, the meeting was held…
On February 2, 2026, the Ellison campaign filed their 2025 year-end report with the MN Campaign Finance Board. This entry appears on the report’s last page (p. 82).
As you can see, the dollar amount of returned contributions equals exactly $10,000, to the penny.
And recall, this $10,000 had already been given back at the time of the February hearing. In his denial, is Ellison referring to some other $10,000? A Clintonian “depends on the meaning of ‘is’ ” dodge? Are we playing games over the identity of the people included in “their’?
Those four contributions shown above (for the maximum $2,500 each) were collected by the Ellison campaign on December 20, 2021.
That fundraiser occurred exactly nine (9) days after an in-person meeting took place between Ellison and a group of individuals linked to the Feeding Our Future scandal. An audio recording was made at the December 11 meeting, presumably by attendee Ikram Yusuf Mohamed, a former Feeding staffer, who was later indicted as Defendant No. 63 in the case. Ikram pled guilty to her role in the scandal last week.
Ellison’s donor, Gandi Yusuf Mohamed, is Ikram’s brother, and is Defendant No. 69 in the case. Gandi has pled not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in federal court next month on fraud charges.
Back in 2022, Ellison had taken another $2,500 (returned in 2022) from a man named Liban Alishire, another Feeding Our Future defendant (No. 36), who has also pled guilty.
So that’s $5,000 returned from fraud indictees and $7,500 returned from individuals not indicted. $12,500 total.
As to Ellison’s contention that the recorded 54-minute meeting did not take place in his state capitol office, here he is correct. The truth is even worse.
Ellison has sought to portray the Dec. 11 meeting with fraudsters as a typical constituent meeting. In fact, Ellison traveled cross-town to meet the fraudsters at their office in suburban Edina. The meeting was held in the corporate offices of one Mahad Ibrahim, Defendant No. 17. Ibrahim would also later plead guilty.
This is a selfie taken by Ellison on election night November 2021 and posted by Ellison to his Twitter (X) account.
The photographer, Ellison, can be seen at the far left. Two men shown above–Mohamed Omar (exact middle) and Abshir Omar (far right) can be heard on the December 11 audio recording.
Two men shown above–Mahad Hassan (2nd from right) and Khalid Omar (3rd from right, crouching) donated to Ellison at the December 20 fundraiser.
As an aside, Keith’s son Jeremiah Ellison can be seen to the right of Keith in the photo above. At the time, the younger Ellison was serving on the Minneapolis city council. At that same December 20, 2021, fundraiser, Jeremiah received maximum $600 per person contributions from Ikram Mohamed, Ikram’s husband, Gandi, Gandi’s wife, Khalid Omar, Mohamed Omar, Abshir Omar, Salim Said (Def. No. 2 and Dec. 11 attendee) and others associated with the Feeding Our Future scandal.
Openly lying to Congress used to result in consequences. Perhaps that’s a relic of a more civilized age.
Watch the entire exchange with Sen. Hawley here:
