Chaos erupted Thursday at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee oversight hearing when Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley confronted Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison over the astounding levels of fraud uncovered in the state just months ago.

During the contentious exchange, Hawley accused Ellison of blatant corruption, alleging he worked with individuals later convicted in the scandal to shield them from investigators, and accepted a $10,000 campaign contribution from them just nine days after pledging to assist their cause.

“The people who ran the Feeding Our Futures program came to you in your official office in the state capitol on December 11, 2021, and asked for your help in getting investigators off their backs,” Sen. Hawley said. They complained to you for upwards of an hour about state investigators going after them, and they begged you to help them. And you agreed to it, amazingly. And we know you did.”

“That’s not true,” Ellison shot back.

“It’s all caught on tape,” Hawley replied. “Every single sentence is caught on tape. Here’s what you said. Let’s take a look.”

You said to them, ‘Send me the names of all these folks who are investigating them.’ You said to them, ‘Send me their names, and I’ll take that list, and I’ll call the person over at Education who’s investigating them and say, what’s going on?’ Why am I getting these complaints? Then you went on to say, ‘I already have my team working on this. What day should we get together to discuss it again?’ You made pledge after pledge to them. You said, we’ve got to make sure this guy who’s investigating them stops it. You said, ‘You have my attention. I’m concerned about this.’ You said, ‘Let’s go fight these people,’ meaning the people who are investigating the fraud. Why’d you do it? Why’d you help them?

Ellison fired back, accusing Hawley of “cherry-picking quotes,” though it was unclear how the remarks in question could be meaningfully recontextualized in a more favorable light.

“I already have my team working on this,” Ellison insisted. “My team assisted with the information that led to the prosecution and conviction of these people.”

He went on to argue that because it was a federal prosecution, he had no part in the actual conviction of the fraudsters.

“BS,” Hawley exclaimed. “You had whistleblowers come to you as early as 2019.”

The Senator went on to accuse Ellison of taking a bribe, in the form of a $10,000 campaign contribution.

Here’s what happened. They went to your office. They solicited money from you. They solicited help from you. They came to your office. It was your official office.You’ve been with them for 54 minutes. They asked you for help. You pledged it to them, and they talked repeatedly about money. In fact, it’s all they talk about. Money, money, money, money. They said, we will put our dollars in the right place. We will support candidates that will fight to protect our interests. You replied, ‘that’s right.’ They said, if you are securing your donor base and securing your power base, you can act the way you want. You replied, ‘money is freedom.’ They said, ‘the amount of money circulating…’ I’m reading the transcript. ‘The amount of money circulating in our community today is powerful, and we haven’t realized it in a meaningful way.’ And you said, ‘Give me the specifics.’ And nine days later, you took $10,000 from people who were then indicted. It’s in your reports. Why’d you do it? Was it worth it?

“You know what? This is a theatrical performance,” Ellison said.

“This is the truth,” Hawley said. “This is what accountability looks like, of which you’ve had none. You helped fraudsters defraud your state and this government of $9 billion, and you got a fat campaign contribution out of it. You ought to be indicted. That’s the truth.”

“Well, for the record, he’s lying, and that’s the truth,” Ellison said.

Sen. Hawley went on:

Oh, no, this is all on the record, sir. Did you bother to investigate where the money that you facilitated their fraud for, where it went? Do you know where it went, what it was used for, the fraudulent money? I do, because we just heard testimony about it yesterday. The funds went to hundreds of millions of dollars, to terrorist groups, to transnational criminal organizations, to the drug trade, to drug trafficking, to child trafficking. And you took $10,000, and helped them do it. The other thing is, whistleblowers came to you as early as 2019. Let’s look. As early as 2019, whistleblower…

In 2019, whistleblowers came to you in your office and referred to you fraud allegations from Feeding Our Futures, and you blew them off. Listen, your own state newspaper, The Minnesota Star-Tribune. The Partners in Nutrition brought its concerns to the attorney general’s office in 2018 and in 2019, and you did nothing. You did nothing for years. The only action you took is, once all these fraudsters came to your office and asked you to get involved and offered you money, then you got involved. Then you took the money, and then you got involved.

Hawley then told Minnesota’s attorney general that he belongs in jail, prompting Ellison to respond, “Well, we’ll see what you can do about it.” Whether Ellison will ultimately face any criminal charges remains an open question.

Dmitri Bolt, Townhall