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FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has not publicly or privately responded to a top investigative committee in Minnesota’s request for information on her possible ties to the massive fraud scandal, but a recent email from one of her former top staffers to the committee sheds light on how her camp may view the situation and who they blame.
“As the District Director for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from 2019-2022, I read with interest your comments in Session Daily regarding H.R.6187 – MEALS Act,” former Omar District Director Kendal Killian wrote in an email, obtained by Fox News Digital, Wednesday afternoon to the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee Chair Kristin Robbins. The email was also sent to Rep. Dave Pinto, the lead Democrat on the committee.
Killian wrote, “If the quote is accurate, you said, ‘She passed the MEALS Act in March 2020.’ Given that you were elected in 2018, I find it surprising that I need to explain to you how a bill becomes law, but one person cannot unilaterally pass legislation.”
Republicans have long argued that the pandemic-era school meal waivers tied to the MEALS Act, sponsored by Omar, helped create the conditions that enabled the massive Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, which federal prosecutors say totaled roughly $250 million.
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Killian went on to explain to Robbins, who has previously served as a legislative director in Congress, that because Republicans controlled the Senate and the White House when the larger bill was passed, that they have “responsibility for implementation” of the legislation.
“So your characterization that Rep. Ilhan Omar passed this legislation unilaterally (and oversaw its execution) is off base,” Killian said. Killian went further in his effort to distance Omar from the legislation, claiming that the bill critics have been citing “never even passed.”
“Again, it is bizarre to have to explain this to a State Representative, but maybe you need some help,” Killian’s email says. He claimed that Robbins is suffering from “confusion,” because “similar legislative language to that in the MEALS Act was included in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.”
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“While the original Meals Act (which never passed) was more similar to universal school meals legislation Omar championed and Representative Sydney Jordan in Minnesota later shepherded, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (supported by McConnell and signed by Trump) added waiver authority that facilitated much of the Feeding Our Future fraud,” Killian wrote. “The fraud was not committed under any bill authored by Omar, but rather under broader COVID-19 legislation and by taking advantage of USDA emergency waivers granted by the Trump administration. Those flexibilities, combined with weak oversight and rapid funding expansion, created conditions that were later exploited in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.”
In bold, Killian wrote that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act was not “chiefly sponsored” by Omar and “thus is grossly inaccurate to claim so” and ended the email saying that “perhaps” the committee should subpoena President Trump rather than Omar.
While the MEALS Act itself did not pass as a standalone bill, it is listed on Congress.gov as related legislation to the broader Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which became law in 2020 and included similar school meal waiver provisions. Robbins told Fox News Digital the former Omar staffer is “lying” about the impact Omar had, arguing the core purpose of the MEALS Act, expanding USDA waiver authority, was part of the broader legislation.
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“I’m talking about the MEALS Act that got incorporated in the larger coronavirus package,” Robbins explained. “In the related bills section it links to the Ilhan bill and lists it as one of the bills included in the Act, the language is identical.”
Congress.gov, the official legislative database run by the Library of Congress, lists Omar’s MEALS Act (H.R. 6187) as “related legislation” to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201).
Robbins pointed to numerous examples of Omar taking credit in messages to her constituents back in Minneapolis for the legislation that did ultimately pass and citing her MEALS Act.
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In Omar’s own September 2020 press release, she explicitly says she “passed into law this spring” the MEALS Act provisions and describes them as legislation that “directly authorized these school meal waivers.”
“Ilhan’s MEALS Act, a bill aimed at protecting students’ access to school meal benefits during school closures, was passed into law as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,” Omar’s campaign website reads.
Additionally, Omar publicly pushed back after the Trump administration signaled in the summer and fall of 2020, after the legislation passed, that it would begin scaling back or letting some of the waivers expire and return programs closer to their pre-pandemic rules.
In August, she again linked the legislation she sponsored in the House to the overall situation, saying in a letter to the Trump administration, “In March, Congress authorized the use of waivers in the MEALS Act and the COVID-19 Child Nutrition Response Act in order to continue to provide school meals for children during the pandemic.”
“Absolutely not, it did help feed kids,” Omar said in December when asked if she regreted her support for the MEALS Act.
Killian’s email also directly contradicts his own words in a LinkedIn post from a year ago, reviewed by Fox News Digital, in which he characterized the significance of the legislation differently.
“When I worked in Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s office during the pandemic, she wrote and passed the MEALS Act, a vital bill funding schools and feeding all kids,” Killian wrote.
In the same post, Killian described the bill as laying “the groundwork” for broader school meals policy, a contrast to his email to lawmakers in which he argued the legislation “never even passed” and sought to distance it from the framework later used during the pandemic.
Killian’s email to Robbins also included a P.S. with a link to the well-known Schoolhouse Rock “I’m Just a Bill” cartoon that explains to children how bills become law.
“It’s shameful,” Robbins told Fox News Digital about the tone of the email and referred to the situation as Omar’s “henchmen” coming after her.
“We have had no official response from the congresswoman, but they have a former district director, which is the most senior position, and he sent it to me and the Democrat lead on the committee,” Robbins said. “So he’s clearly wanting to have Democrats push back on me and say, ‘Robbins doesn’t know what she’s talking about, this wasn’t really Ilhan’s bill, it never passed,’ which is just BS.”
Notably, Killian’s letter does not address the specific questions the committee asked Omar in a recent letter, which the congresswoman has not responded to, related to the several connections between Omar and individuals in the Somali community charged or implicated in the case.
The committee asked Omar to turn over communications showing how she promoted expanded access to federal child nutrition programs, including emails, texts and meeting records with the Minnesota Department of Education and constituents.
The request also zeroed in on Omar’s public promotion of a Minneapolis restaurant that later became linked to the fraud scandal. Robbins cited a Somali-language TV appearance in which Omar highlighted Safari Restaurant as a meal distribution site and asked for all communications related to the video and the restaurant’s participation.
“She fought to keep the waivers in place during the time that Safari and the other fraudsters were making their money,” Robbins told Fox News Digital.
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The committee is also seeking records of any contact between Omar and a long list of individuals charged or implicated in the Feeding Our Future case, including nonprofit founder Aimee Bock and dozens of alleged co-conspirators as well as information about political donations Omar received from individuals later charged in the case, requesting “any and all” communications with those donors.
In a response to Fox News Digital, Killian did not directly say whether his original email was coordinated with Rep. Omar or her office, instead describing it as his personal “perspective.” He acknowledged that “very similar language” from the MEALS Act was included in the broader coronavirus relief package that became law.
Killian also argued that responsibility for the fraud lies with those who implemented the program, placing blame on both federal and state officials, particularly Gov. Tim Walz.
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“It was then overseen by the Trump USDA. And then governors like Walz. Frankly, Governor Walz…deserves the same level of scrutiny as this Fox inquiry,” Killian wrote. “At the end of the day, it was Governor Walz who [expletive] this up.”
Killian further sought to distance the legislation from the fraud itself, arguing that “no fraud took place at actual public schools” and that “the nonprofits did,” adding that “Ilhan’s bill was focused on the former.”
But the same waiver authority allowed meals to be distributed far beyond school cafeterias, including at non-school sites such as restaurants and community locations later tied to the fraud scheme, raising questions about how separate the two systems were in practice.
Killian also dismissed inconsistencies over whether the MEALS Act “passed” as a matter of “casual” or imprecise language, without directly reconciling his emailed statement that the bill “never even passed” with his prior description of Omar as having “wrote and passed” it.
Omar’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Omar was given a deadline of May 5 to respond to the committee, which she did not meet, and has yet to give any public response.
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After Omar missed the deadline, the committee attempted to subpoena her for the, information but was blocked by Democrats on the committee in a party-line vote.
“It’s the same story every time,” Robbins posted on X after the vote. “Fraud is committed, information is suppressed, and the dysfunction continues.”
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