Keith Ellison: Recording #2 Emerges

It’s a truism of Minnesota politics – when you want the latest news about any DFL (Minnesotan for “Democrat”) politician, go to the London Daily Mail or, on a good day, the New York Post.  

Last week, Hot Air’s David Strom was Wh among the first to cover the release audio of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison contradicting his claims to have been unaware of the state’s brewing “Feeding Our Future” fraud scandal, the largest (so far) of this nation’s Covid aid scandals.  The recording,  taken from evidence in one of the trials, appears to show Attorney General, former Congressman and DNC official Keith Ellison meeting with figures that became involved in what became the nation’s largest Covid aid scandal. The recording was originally obtained and released by Bill Glahn at the Center of the American Experiement in Minneapolis.

But that was last week!  It’s a whole new week!

On Monday, Glahn and the Center released a second recording of Ellison:

🚨A SECOND leaked audio links Keith Ellison to Feeding Our Future…listen to another American Experiment exclusive recording here: https://t.co/veVK3hX0Ev

— American Experiment (@MNThinkTank) April 14, 2025

And it further contradicts Ellison’s claims to have been an unaware of the brewing controversy, according to Glahn:

We are told that the meeting included Abshir Omar, Sen. [and likely DFL candidate for Minneapolis Mayor Omar] Fateh, state Sen. Nick Frentz (DFL-18, N. Mankato) and Attorney General Ellison. The only persons identified on the recording are the “attorney general” and “Sen. Frentz.”

The subject matter appears to be the ongoing state lawsuit between Feeding Our Future and the state Dept. of Education (“MDE”). The audio mentions (0:05) a contempt ruling filed against MDE, which occurred in June 2021. MDE was represented in the lawsuit by Ellison’s office.

At the 24-second mark, Ellison respond to a question by stating that he had heard of the FOF/MDE case “late this afternoon.” This contradicts Ellison’s statement on the later December 2021 audio tape that he was unaware of the lawsuit.

In the meantime – it’s a truism in Minnesota political journalism that if you want to get facts about Minnesota “progressive” politicians from the mainstream media, you have to go to the London Daily Mail or the New York Post 

And, true to form, the NYPost is catching up with David, and is still a solid week ahead of most Twin Cities media:

Minnesota AG Keith Ellison accepted campaign donations from individuals linked to $250M COVID fraud scheme https://t.co/622oNeJwsl pic.twitter.com/Daob7CAtu6

— New York Post (@nypost) April 15, 2025

The big question, as far as I see it so far, is how much pro quo was there in the quid – were the thousands in campaign donations Ellison apparently raised from the future defendants (and others, to be clear, who’ve never been implicated much less indicted for any role in the scandal) linked to what sounded like Ellison saying that he could get state investigators to cool it with digging into the organizations’ activities.  As Glahn noted in last week’s report:

Specifically, the request is for him, in the AG’s statutory role as attorney for state agencies, to intervene on behalf of these small businesses subject to racist government overregulation. At 44:26, Ellison assures his audience, “Of course, I’m here to help,” and at 45:00, “Let’s go fight these people.”

Which would appear to conflict with his role as the state’s top lawyer – including for the MN Department of Education, who were raising questions about the non-profit at the time.  

Ellison’s got some questions. 

And those questions will no doubt come, first, from New York, London, or one conservative reporter or another.