Omar Fateh is a member of the Minnesota Senate and a Democrat Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota member. Fateh is also the first Somali-American and Muslim member of the Minnesota Senate to hold elected office. However, his term might be ending soon.
In a unanimous vote, the Minnesota Senate ethics panel decided to investigate first-term Senator Omar Fateh and announced steps to subpoena his former Senate assistant.
To get to this point, Omar and his lawyer Kristin Hendrick had to go through an ethics hearing where they refuted claims made against him by seven Senate Republicans who had complained. “Failing to specifically address his role in the improper transmission of 2020 primary election absentee votes and retaining his Senate employee who oversaw the fraudulent election activities,” the lawsuit stated.
The Minnesota Senate ethics subcommittee voted unanimously today to investigate state Senator Omar Fateh. @bzosiad reports: https://t.co/5ZfJ0iquTj @Report4America
— Sahan Journal (@SahanJournal) June 16, 2022
Omar came back in front of the subcommittee after being questioned last week. Wednesday, Hendrick claimed Omar was “shocked” to learn of potential campaign corruption.
She said under oath that “he had no idea that anything was wrong, potentially, on his campaign. He was not involved in any criminal activity or conduct. He didn’t approve of anything and didn’t support anything that wasn’t legal either directly or indirectly.”
Muse Mohamed, Omar’s brother-in-law and a former campaign volunteer was recently found guilty of perjury and faces up to five years in prison. During the August 2020 election, a federal jury found Muse guilty on two counts of lying to a grand jury regarding how he handled absentee votes.
It took an FBI agent, who testified during Muse’s prosecution, a year and more than 80 witnesses to investigate how certain absentee ballots were handled during the August 2020 election. Hendrick said on Wednesday that Omar was not one of those witnesses and that the probe had neither sought nor subpoenaed him to testify. No one else has been charged with voting fraud as of yet; Muse is the sole individual indicted due to the inquiry.
Three voters had their votes taken from them by Muse, who said that he was going to return them to the polling place. The grand jury heard evidence that refuted such claims. In his prosecution, two voters testified that they never met Muse and never completed the absentee votes he claimed to have filled out.
An official transcript of grand jury evidence following the trial said that Dawson Kimyon provided Muse with the names of three voters. Until last month, Kimyon served as Omar’s campaign manager and legislative assistant in the Senate.
Kimyon did not respond to requests for comment when contacted on Wednesday. He has rebuffed requests to speak on the Muse trial and his suspected involvement in the past. After the hearing on Wednesday, a request for an interview with Omar went unanswered.
Senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake) asked Omar why he was upset by Muse’s conviction, and Omar responded by explaining his concerns.
“I was quite disturbed,” Omar told the ethics subcommittee, “because we worked hard to conduct our campaign with the highest honesty. I was just as shocked as everyone else when I heard the news. I was equally disgusted by the claims and the conviction.”
The fact that it was a member of my family, someone I cared about, someone I care about now, and someone I care about in the future; makes it much more painful.
As Hendrick said, he had not promoted any illegal activity, reaffirming that.
There will be a new meeting of the subcommittee on July 7th. At that time, Osmek said, they’ll consider the recent testimony and decide what to do.
Whether Fateh and his aides committed cheating during the 2020 election is proven true will have to wait for the next hearing.