Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins sent a formal letter to Rep. Ilhan Omar on April 22 demanding records and a written response after Omar failed to appear at a state committee hearing examining her potential ties to the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, a case federal prosecutors say involved the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded child nutrition aid.
Omar did not show up. She did not send a representative. She did not reply to the committee's repeated outreach beforehand. And she has not responded since.
"She didn't even respond, ghosted us," Robbins, who chairs the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, told Fox News Digital. "No, we've sent multiple emails, multiple letters, nothing."
The hearing and the letter mark the latest escalation in a growing effort by Minnesota Republicans to trace the lines between Omar's legislative work, her public promotion of meal distribution sites later linked to the fraud, and her connections to individuals charged in the case. The committee set a May 5 deadline for Omar to produce the requested materials.
Robbins' letter lays out a broad request for documentation. It asks for communications showing how Omar promoted expanded access to federal child nutrition programs, including emails, texts, and meeting records with the Minnesota Department of Education and constituents.
It also asks for all communications related to a Somali-language television appearance in which Omar highlighted Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis as a meal distribution site. That restaurant later became linked to the program at the center of the fraud.
Omar has faced separate scrutiny over a $30 million swing in her reported wealth tied to amended financial disclosures, adding to the cloud of questions surrounding her finances and public conduct.
Beyond the restaurant, the letter seeks records of any contact between Omar and individuals charged or implicated in the Feeding Our Future case, including nonprofit founder Aimee Bock and dozens of alleged co-conspirators. It also requests "any and all" communications with political donors who were later charged in the case.
Robbins told Fox News Digital that understanding Omar's role matters because the legislation Omar authored, the MEALS Act, a federal COVID-19 relief measure passed in 2020, is at the heart of the committee's inquiry.
"And her Meals Act is what created the conditions that allowed Feeding Our Future to happen."
The MEALS Act loosened eligibility rules so that nonschool-based distributors could participate in the federal child nutrition program during COVID-era school closures. That change, according to committee members, removed safeguards that had previously limited who could claim federal meal reimbursements. The Washington Examiner reported that committee members accused Omar of helping create the conditions for the fraud by sponsoring the legislation.
Robbins put it plainly in remarks to the Examiner: "The MEALS Act loosened the guardrails on the federal nutrition program that led to the scandal we now call Feeding Our Future."
Federal prosecutors say the resulting scheme drained hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded child nutrition aid during the pandemic. Broader estimates of Minnesota welfare fraud tied to related schemes run to roughly $1 billion, as Newsmax reported.
The scale of the theft makes it one of the largest pandemic-era fraud cases in the country. And the question Robbins and her committee are pressing is whether the congresswoman who wrote the law that opened the door bears any responsibility for what walked through it.
Omar has offered a public explanation, though not to the Minnesota committee. In remarks covered by Newsmax, she blamed the fraud on the speed with which COVID-era programs were stood up and the reliance on third parties to deliver services.
"I think what happened, um, is that, you know, when you have these kind of new programs that are, um, designed to help people, you're oftentimes relying on third parties to be able to facilitate," Omar said.
Republican Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth was not persuaded. "I am not buying what was said about why the fraud might have gone on so long," Demuth said, pointing instead to a lack of oversight and accountability under Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic officials. Demuth added that she does not know of Omar being directly involved in the fraud itself.
That distinction matters. No one on the committee has publicly accused Omar of stealing money. The accusation is narrower but still serious: that she authored the legislation that stripped away protections, promoted specific sites later tied to the fraud, maintained contact with individuals who ended up charged, and then refused to answer questions about any of it.
Omar's broader pattern of resistance to scrutiny is by now familiar. She lashed out at a reporter who pressed her on a multimillion-dollar financial disclosure discrepancy, and the questions around her finances have only deepened since.
During Tuesday's committee meeting, lawmakers played a video of Omar's Somali-language television appearance promoting Safari Restaurant as a meal distribution site. They discussed ties between Omar and individuals within the Minneapolis Somali community who are associated with the fraud. Just The News reported that Republicans are scrutinizing the video alongside the MEALS Act as evidence of Omar's proximity to the scheme, though Democrats on the committee argued her actions were intended to help feed children during the pandemic.
Robbins framed the stakes in remarks to The Center Square: "They are both key players in the child nutrition scandal and fraud... and neither of them came to answer questions about their involvement." She was referring to Omar and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose absence was also noted. "The fact that Representative Omar and Attorney General Ellison would not even come and answer questions...is what has Minnesotans so frustrated," Robbins added.
The committee chairwoman also told National Review that Omar had "completely ghosted" state lawmakers, and described herself as "disappointed" in the letter she sent.
Robbins, who is running for governor of Minnesota, has made the Feeding Our Future investigation a centerpiece of her oversight work. Her letter asks Omar to provide a written response and all requested materials by May 5. Fox News Digital reached out to Omar's office for comment. No response from Omar's office was noted.
Meanwhile, the political pressure on Omar extends beyond the fraud inquiry. A former ICE attorney recently launched a Democratic primary challenge against her, and fellow members of Congress have raised pointed questions about her financial disclosures, including whether certain discrepancies could carry legal consequences.
What Minnesotans are left with is a familiar sequence. A federal program was created in haste. Safeguards were loosened by legislation. Hundreds of millions of dollars vanished. Dozens of people were charged. And the congresswoman who sponsored the law, promoted specific sites tied to the fraud, and received donations from individuals later indicted will not sit for questions from the state lawmakers trying to piece together what happened.
She will not answer letters. She will not answer emails. She will not walk into a committee room and face the people whose tax dollars were stolen.
Accountability doesn't work when the people who owe answers decide they're above giving them.
