Republican John Nagel, who is running against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, alleges she has “deep ties” to individuals charged — and in many cases convicted — in a major COVID-era fraud case involving taxpayer-funded programs.
Federal investigators with the Justice Department uncovered and prosecuted more than $1 billion in fraudulent payments tied to pandemic-era programs in Minnesota. The case drew particular attention because many of those charged came from the state’s Somali community — the community Omar is often associated with as a Somali American lawmaker.
During a Sunday interview with Omar, CBS News host Margaret Brennan highlighted the scope of the prosecutions, noting that 87 people were charged and that all but eight are of Somali descent.
One high-profile example involved the “Feeding Our Future” case. Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick said in a March news release that “Aimee Bock and Salim Said took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to carry out a massive fraud scheme that stole money meant to feed children.”
“The defendants falsely claimed to have served 91 million meals, for which they fraudulently received nearly $250 million in federal funds. That money did not go to feed kids. Instead, it was used to fund their lavish lifestyles. Today’s verdict sends a message to the community that fraud against the government will not be tolerated,” the prosecutor said.
Nagel told Fox News that the “Feeding Our Future” program at the center of the scandal was connected to the 2020 MEALS Act, which Omar introduced and which passed with bipartisan support. He argued that the geographic concentration of the fraud in the area Omar represents raises questions.
“If you look at where the fraud is, it’s primarily her [5th Congressional District], the district that I’m running in against her. And it’s really odd to think that you know all the fraud just happened in a particular area, and it was a bill that she, you know, particularly put together,” he said.
Fox reported, “Members of Omar’s inner circle personally profited from the $1 billion welfare fraud scandal in her district that has placed her Somali constituency under a White House microscope, Nagel said. He also said that Omar held events at one of the restaurants, Safari Land, which was named in the fraud case, knew one of its now-convicted owners and had a staffer who was also convicted.”
Nagel claimed the Safari Land restaurant played an outsized role in local political organizing and fundraising.
“If you look at the Safari Land restaurant, if you’re gonna be in politics, you need to go through the people at the Safari Land restaurant,” Nagel said. “They kind of control the politics. She had all of her fundraising things. I mean, that was sort of her hangout. That’s where she spent money, got donations.”
According to the Justice Department, Salim Said is a co-owner of the Safari Land restaurant.
Nagel also pointed to Guhaad Hashi Said, whom Fox described as “sometimes referred to as an ‘enforcer’ for Omar’s campaign,” and noted that he is among the people indicted in the Feeding Our Future case.
Nagel asserted, “There’s a lot of really deep, deep ties.”
“I think time will tell with the investigation,” he added. “But again, there’s just too much circumstantial evidence to look at this and say, she had to have known something, or what staff member knew something?”
He further claimed that individuals later convicted had donated significant sums and questioned whether all related donations had been fully returned or disclosed.
“A whole lot of people that were convicted donated a whole lot of money. Omar says that she gave the money back,” Nagel said. “Well, if you go into public records, she gave some money back, but there’s a whole lot more money there that she didn’t report. And I think if people were just to go through the everyday records that are out there, you’ll find out that her involvement in the money that she has is questionable.”
In the CBS interview, Brennan asked Omar, “Why do you think this fraud was allowed to get so widespread?”
Omar responded by stressing that the scandal harmed Somali Minnesotans as well, arguing they were victims of the theft alongside everyone else.
“I want to say, you know, this also has an impact on Somalis, because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota,” the lawmaker replied.
“We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen,” Omar continued. “And so it’s been really frustrating for people to not acknowledge the fact that we’re also — as Minnesotans, as taxpayers — really upset and angry about the fraud that has occurred.”
