HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called on each other to resign on Thursday.
Hawley was questioning Ellison about fraud in the state during a hearing held by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The senator accused Ellison of enabling a multi-billion-dollar scheme, which the attorney general denies.
“You have been right at the center of this fraud thing from the beginning, and you’ve enabled it. And sir, you should resign,” Hawley asserted.
“And, sir, you should resign,” Ellison replied. “I was thinking the same thing about you. I was thinking the exact same thing about you.”
The officials argued throughout their exchange, which focused on Ellison’s alleged involvement in the statewide fraud. The Trump administration has estimated that billions of dollars have been stolen through multiple schemes.
Ellison has defended his response to the crimes, saying in an interview on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” in December that his office has been proactive but in need of federal assistance. President Donald Trump, the attorney general explained, has punished Minnesota and Somali residents, who make up most of the defendants, for the illegal activities.
“What we need, though, Anderson, is cooperation to stop the theft of public money, not politicization and using this tragic situation as a political weapon to gain advantage,” Ellison said. “I am telling you as an attorney general: Yeah, fraud happens. We should prosecute it, hold people accountable for their individual conduct, not for their ethnicity.”
The Trump administration froze funds for Minnesota and restricted Somalis’ immigration protections as its fraud investigation continued. The president said in a social media post last month that state politicians, like Governor Tim Walz and U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali citizen, allowed the scheme to develop.
“‘Scammer’ Illhan Omar and her absolutely terrible friends from Somalia should all be in jail right now or, far worse, send them back to Somalia,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “‘Governor’ Waltz is either the most CORRUPT government official in history, or the most INCOMPETENT. Even a very low IQ person, of which there are many, should have known what was going on in Minnesota!!!”
Walz and Omar have rejected the president’s accusations and accused him of exacerbating issues in Minnesota. Trump’s deployment of federal agents into the state to address fraud schemes escalated an already tense relationship between residents and the administration, according to the officials.
Have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.
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