Republican challenger John Nagel is accusing Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of being deeply tied to the $1 billion Feeding Our Future fraud scandal centered in her Minneapolis-based congressional district. Nagel, who is running against Omar in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, alleged that legislation introduced by Omar helped create the conditions that allowed the fraud to occur.
“Where did this actually start?” Nagel said, Townhall reported. “She passed legislation. Her legislation actually started it, and it allowed people to get into Feeding Our Future.”

Nagel pointed to the geographic concentration of the fraud.

“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.”Omar introduced the Maintaining Essential Access to Lunch for Students Act, known as the MEALS Act, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill allowed states to provide free meals to children during school closures through alternative methods such as grab-and-go distribution and eased eligibility requirements.

The legislation was passed by Congress with bipartisan support.

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Nagel alleged that individuals within Omar’s political orbit financially benefited from the fraud scheme.

He said Omar held campaign events at Safari Restaurant, a business linked to the scandal, had personal familiarity with one of its now-convicted owners, and employed a 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.”

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Nagel said multiple individuals convicted in the case donated money 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 criticized Omar’s public response to the scandal, accusing her of deflecting scrutiny.

“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 said last week that the fraud stemmed from weaknesses in emergency 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. “A lot of the COVID programs were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created.”

Nagel said the solution is a change in leadership.