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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – In the aftermath of the massive Feeding Our Future scandal and broader allegations of systemic fraud in Minnesota’s social programs, a troubling theme has emerged: accusations of racism repeatedly used to deflect scrutiny, intimidate investigators and stall accountability.
Rumors and reports of fraud in Minneapolis, primarily within the city’s exploding Somali community, have been circulating for at least a decade, but criticism of the fraud has been largely dismissed by elected Democrats as “racist” or being underpinned by animosity toward foreigners. News stories focused on Somali fraudsters in recent years were shot down as “racist.”
“The whole story kind of died under these accusations that people were being racist,” Bill Glahn, policy fellow with Center of the American Experiment, told Fox News Digital. “Oh, maybe somebody stole a little bit here, a little bit there, but there’s nothing systemic going on.”
Former assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Teirab, who helped take on federal prosecutions in the Feeding Our Future case, described to Fox News Digital how individuals implicated in fraud leaned on racial accusations as a shield. According to Teirab, suspects explicitly invoked race during a secretly recorded meeting with Attorney General Keith Ellison, asserting that investigators were targeting them “only because of race.”
OMAR ACCUSED BY GOP OPPONENT OF OPENING UP THE DOOR TO MASSIVE MINNEAPOLIS FRAUD: ‘DEEP, DEEP TIES’
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Teirab called this tactic both deliberate and cynical. In one trial, a juror was even approached with a $120,000 cash bribe, allegedly accompanied by messaging intended to frame the investigation as racially motivated. The goal wasn’t just to escape prosecution, it was to taint the…
