Two witnesses were no-shows for Thursday’s Senate ethics committee hearing looking into two complaints against Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, and will now be subpoenaed.The no-shows mean the Senate ethics panel’s investigation could continue into August, even as Fateh faces a DFL primary against education labor leader Shaun Laden.
A DFL state senator who is currently the subject of an ethics investigation ran his 2020 campaign out of a south Minneapolis location without reporting paying any rent, according to trial testimony and campaign finance filings. A campaign office for Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, was mentioned during a recent trial, and Senate ethics hearing. If Fateh received free rent without reporting it as an-kind contribution, he would be in violation of Minnesota campaign finance rules.
The Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct, a bipartisan four-member panel, continued its hearing on whether enough probable cause existed to conduct a formal review of the complaints and voted unanimously to continue the investigation.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) An attorney for state Sen. Omar Fateh told an ethics panel Wednesday that the Minneapolis Democrat was never endorsed by a YouTube channel that serves the local Somali community and that his sponsorship of unsuccessful legislation to give the nonprofit a $500,000 grant was therefore not a reward for the channel's support.