Ethics Committee hears complaints against DFL Sen. Omar Fateh

State senators are weighing whether to delve deeper into two ethics complaints against Sen. Omar Fateh related to campaign advertising and connections to an election fraud investigation.

The Senate's subcommittee on ethical conduct met Wednesday for the first time in more than seven years, and will continue examining the situation next week.

The panel's meeting focused on the first complaint about Somali TV of Minnesota airing political ads for Fateh in 2020, and the senator's later sponsorship of a bill to provide $500,000 to the nonprofit TV outlet. A group of Republican senators who brought the complaint said the Minneapolis DFLer broke Senate rules by failing to disclose a conflict of interest and said Somali TV aired free promotions for him.

Fateh disputed the assertion and showed documentation of two $500 payments made to Somali TV at the time via Cash App that were labeled "For Omar Fateh video," along with a sworn statement from a Somali TV producer backing up the payment.

Fateh accidentally paid through a private account rather than his campaign account, his attorney, Kristin Hendrick, said. Then he failed to report it to the state's Campaign Finance Board. Fateh said he submitted a revised report this week.

"This is not a situation of quid pro quo, obviously. That's based on the false premise of this 'free endorsement,'" Hendrick said, adding that Fateh sponsored a variety of bills to appropriate money to different community organizations. "There seems in the allegation in this complaint to be something of Senator Fateh looking out for his own — in fact he's looking out for all of his constituents."

But one of the seven men bringing the complaint, Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, said the information provided by Fateh and Hendrick lacked details to disprove the claims in their complaint.

"This doesn't appear to be a complicated process. Have receipts, provide who made the payment to who and follow the state and federal laws and campaign finance rules," Koran said.

The ads on Somali TV of Minnesota for Fateh also did not include a required disclaimer for campaign-related content, which he said he provided but was not added to the video. Fateh showed a number of similar campaign advertising videos from other politicians that aired on the outlet without the disclaimer — a move that raised additional concerns from some senators on the Ethics Committee.

If the senators want to look into Somali TV in more detail, that's their prerogative, said Hendrick, adding there is not probable cause for the complaint against Fateh.

Legislators will also consider a second complaint in the coming weeks about Fateh's ties to a federal election fraud investigation that led to the conviction of his brother-in-law, Muse Mohamud Mohamed, who volunteered for Fateh's campaign. He was convicted of perjury for lying to a federal grand jury about his handling of absentee ballots two years ago.