‘Sprawling reimbursement scheme’: State officials asks Congress to subpoena Ilhan Omar in fraud investigation

By Bob Unruh

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at the Twin Cities Pride Parade in Minneapolis on June 24, 2018. (Wikimedia Commons)

Officials in Minnesota are asking Congress to subpoena Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat representing a Somali immigrant-dominant district in the state, to provide her records and knowledge about a massive COVID-era fraud.

It is the Feeding Our Future scheme that is under investigation on suspicion it was a $250 million fraud on taxpayers.

It is the Minnesota state House Anti-Fraud and Oversight Committee that is making the request for Congress to demand Omar hand over “records of her office’s past correspondence with the ringleader of Feeding Our Future,” according to report at the Washington Examiner.

The report explained Minnesota lawmakers, on the state House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, suspect her of playing a role in the “sprawling reimbursement scheme that primarily involved Somali immigrants, many living in Omar’s congressional district, stealing more than $250 million from a federal child nutrition program.”

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Already, court documents confirm Omar’s staffers were in communications with Aimee Bock, the convicted mastermind of the scheme.

Confirmed the Examiner, the documents “indicate that members of Omar’s congressional office, including her ‘community representative,’ communicated with Bock on multiple occasions via email and text in 2021, when Feeding Our Future was actively defrauding the federal meal delivery program intended to feed children during the COVID-19 crisis.”

State lawmakers repeatedly have asked for her to turn over documentation in the case.

The state panel tried to subpoena Omar itself, but was blocked by Democrat party opponents to uncovering the truth about Omar and the scandal.

Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican, then followed up with a letter to Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking for a subpoena for those records.

“Here we needed to have six votes, and the Democrats all united in protecting her,” Robbins told the Examiner. “But our friends in Congress, on the oversight committee, have a majority, so depending on their rules, they would be able to get the documents.”

At the congressional level, if Omar refused to comply, the penalties could be for contempt, a criminal offense that can carry jail time.

Robbins explained, “It is essential to understand the genesis of the largest COVID-related fraud scandal by getting the documents and the facts about Rep. Omar’s and her staff’s communications with defendants in this case. As you may be aware, Rep. Ilhan Omar has documented ties to criminals convicted in the Feeding Our Future case, including holding her 2018 election party at the Safari Restaurant and appearing in a video promoting the MEALS Act, which was filmed at the Safari Restaurant.”

Further, in 2020, Omar pushed the Maintaining Essential Access to Lunch for Students Act, which lifted restrictions on which groups could collect cash from a federal meals program.

That specifically allowed outside corporations to claim cash for “food they purportedly delivered.”

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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