Is Minnesota AG Keith Ellison moving closer to legal jeopardy? The far-left Democrat recently defended the activists who stormed a church in Minneapolis, but it’s the Somali fraud scandal that is at the center of this latest report.
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According to Fox News, there is allegedly audio of Keith Ellison being offered campaign donations by now-convicted Somali fraudsters in exchange for “getting the money flowing again.” The meeting is claimed to have taken place in 2021.
Keith Ellison allegedly solicited donations from Somali fraudsters in exchange for helping to keep the fraud going
CHARGE HIM pic.twitter.com/kfCjffT3HC
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 23, 2026
REPORTER: Congress [is] also asking why the AG there would meet with a group of Somali fraudsters which were under FBI investigation in 2021. The group can be heard in an audio clip given to us by Bock’s lawyer, offering to donate to his campaign if he can help get their funding flowing again. Ellison denies any wrongdoing here. He slammed Bock in a statement to Fox, calling her a liar and a manipulator, adding that now she’s on a media tour to deflect her guilt onto others instead of finally taking responsibility for this fraud scheme that she ran.
The first thing to figure out here is what audio is even being cited. Fox News says it came from Aimee Bock’s lawyer, one of the ringleaders of a $250 million Somali fraud scheme. She’s currently in prison, something Ellison has used to attack her credibility. Recorded audio can’t be brushed aside that easily, though, and I did a little digging to try to figure out if it’s something we’ve heard before or not. It seems probable that this is from the same meeting that was first revealed back in April of 2025.
BOMBSHELL AUDIO: Democrat AG Keith Ellison bragged about helping indict fraudsters who stole $250 million from a federal child nutrition program.
But newly uncovered audio shows Ellison privately offering support to people tied to the scandal. pic.twitter.com/6QTWxnGvOs
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 14, 2025
The above audio was, like the audio described by the Fox News reporter, from a meeting in 2021 where Ellison offered help to people who would eventually be convicted in the aforementioned $250 million Somali fraud scheme. If it is the same meeting, Fox News may have obtained more extensive, possibly damaging audio. For context, in the above clip, Ellison does offer to help the people he’s meeting with, but they are never heard offering him anything in exchange. We know there was more said in the meeting, though.
Sure enough, there’s another clip from the same meeting that appears far more damning for Ellison. In early January, while describing that audio, Dana Perino explained that after the Minnesota AG offered to help these fraudsters push back against investigations into their activities, they did end up shovelling campaign money into his coffers.
.@Danaperino breaks down Keith Ellison‘s quid pro quo arrangement with the Somali fraudsters caught on leaked audio.
“[Keith Ellison] is on audiotape and he’s talking to the fraudsters. And he says, ‘I want to help you,’ and they discuss how. They say they’re being cracked down… pic.twitter.com/rWnnM97hdI
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) January 9, 2026
PERINO: [Keith Ellison] is on audiotape, and he’s talking to the fraudsters, and he says, “I want to help you.” They discuss how. They explain that they’re being cracked down upon. He says, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m going to use the power of the Attorney General’s office to stop that, to prevent that from happening.” A few days later, guess what pops into his campaign account? Campaign contributions from these very fraudsters, and he gives that money back only after those people are indicted. So yes, I want to see him testify.
Here’s the excerpt she’s talking about that raised eyebrows.
MAN: The only way that we can protect what we have is by inserting ourselves into the political arena. Putting our votes where it needs to be. But most importantly, putting our dollars in the right place. And supporting candidates that will fight to protect our interests.
ELLISON: That’s right.
Now, we’re getting somewhere, and in the next part of the exchange, the man speaking makes it clear he’s not just talking in political abstracts but is talking about giving money directly to Ellison.
MAN: You can only protect our interests when we have your back, and you don’t have to worry about who is behind you.
To summarize, you have these fraudsters asking Ellison to help stop the investigations into them, promising to support him monetarily because he will “protect our interests.” Couple that with the first clip I shared, where Ellison pointedly pledges to make calls and use the power of his office to help them, and suddenly, it sure seems like you have all the makings of a quid pro quo.
My question is whether Fox News has obtained a third clip that is even more definitive, or if they are rehashing what we already know? If so, we need to hear that audio to know if it moves the ball forward. Either way, this stinks to high heaven, given the timeline and fact pattern. It seems improbable that Ellison wouldn’t have known the people he was talking to were being investigated for fraud because they were asking for help to specifically quash investigations into them. He seemed more than willing to play along, and notably, he only returned the donations they made when all of this became public.
Still, it is the DOJ’s job to come up with a case that is both prosecutable and winnable. So while this all seems simple to us, they can’t afford to move too quickly and blow up any chance at accountability. Certainly, given Ellison’s long history of partisan shenanigans, this is something that needs to be pursued with full force.
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