Ilhan Omar Challenger Alleges Ties To Growing Minn. Fraud Scandal
Republican congressional candidate John Nagel is accusing Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., of being deeply entangled—politically and personally—in the massive $1 billion Feeding Our Future fraud scheme that unfolded largely within her Minneapolis-based congressional district.
Nagel, who is challenging Omar in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, argued that legislation she sponsored during the COVID-19 pandemic created the very conditions that allowed the unprecedented fraud to take root. Speaking to Townhall, Nagel said the origins of the scandal trace directly back to Omar’s work in Congress.
“Where did this actually start?” Nagel said. “She passed legislation. Her legislation actually started it, and it allowed people to get into Feeding Our Future.”
Nagel also pointed to the striking geographic concentration of the fraud, which overwhelmingly occurred inside Omar’s district.
“If you look at where the fraud is, it’s primarily her district, the district that I’m running in against her,” he said. “And it’s really odd to think that all the fraud just happened in a particular area.”
At the center of Nagel’s criticism is Omar’s Maintaining Essential Access to Lunch for Students Act, commonly known as the MEALS Act. Introduced during the pandemic, the bill expanded emergency food programs by allowing states to distribute free meals through alternative methods—such as grab-and-go sites—and by loosening eligibility requirements.
The legislation passed Congress with bipartisan backing, but critics argue that the speed and lack of oversight created fertile ground for abuse.
Nagel further alleged that individuals closely connected to Omar financially benefited from the fraud scheme. He claimed Omar held campaign events at Safari Restaurant, a business later linked to the scandal, had personal familiarity with one of its now-convicted owners, and employed a campaign staffer who was later convicted in connection with the case.
“If you’re going to be in politics, you need to go through the people at the Safari Land restaurant,” Nagel said. “They kind of control the politics. That was her hangout. That’s where she spent money and got donations.”
According to Nagel, several individuals convicted in the Feeding Our Future case donated to Omar’s campaign.
“Omar says that she gave the money back,” he said. “Public records show she gave some money back, but there’s a whole lot more money there that she didn’t report.”
“There’s just too much circumstantial evidence to look at this and say she had to have known something,” Nagel added. “Or at least someone on her staff knew something.”
Nagel also took aim at Omar’s public reaction to the scandal, accusing her of attempting to distance herself while ignoring her political associations.
“She made statements about how terrible it is to steal food from children,” Nagel said. “That’s a nice thing to say, but you have way too many people you’re associated with who actually did that.”
Omar, for her part, has blamed the fraud on structural weaknesses in hastily assembled pandemic programs.
“When you have these kinds of new programs that are designed to help people, you’re oftentimes relying on third parties to facilitate,” Omar said last week. “A lot of the COVID programs were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created.”
Nagel argued that the only meaningful solution is a wholesale change in leadership.
“We get rid of Ilhan Omar, and we put people in Minnesota who actually want to do the right thing,” he said. “You’re going to have to entirely root out the Democratic Party and anyone who’s been letting things slide.”
Despite the scale of the scandal, Omar has not been charged or formally accused of wrongdoing by law enforcement, and no criminal case has been brought against her.
President Donald J. Trump, now serving his second term, sharply criticized Omar earlier this month, labeling her “garbage” and making blunt remarks about Somalia and immigration.
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you, OK. Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason,” he said.
“Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country,” Trump said of the historically failed nation.
“With Somalia, which is barely a country, you know, they have no, they have no anything. They just run around killing each other. There’s no structure,” the president added.