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Minnesota Republican state Rep. Kristin Robbins says Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was “thick as thieves” with people caught up in the state’s massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, and that Omar has ignored her committee’s repeated requests for answers, according to an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire.
The interview came hours after The New York Times reported on an Obama-era FBI investigation into claims that Omar entered into a fake marriage with a man suspected of being her brother. The Times reported that investigators found some evidence supporting the claims, but prosecutors never filed charges because the five-year deadline had passed. “The Justice Department didn’t say she hadn’t committed a felony,” Robbins said. “They said the statute had run out.”
Robbins, who leads a Minnesota House committee investigating fraud and state agencies, says six messages between Omar’s staff and people charged in the Feeding Our Future scheme turned up in federal court records. The nonprofit was at the center of a $250 million fraud that stole federal money meant to feed children. “We’ve asked her to come and testify voluntarily dozens of times, and she’s completely ghosted us,” Robbins said.
Robbins pointed to Abdikerm Eidleh, a man tied to the case who fled the country in 2022 and was brought back to the U.S. in July 2026 to face charges, saying court records mentioned messages involving Omar’s staff. She also cited Omar’s ties to the owner of Safari Restaurant, who was convicted by a federal jury, saying Omar held campaign events there and appeared in a video promoting the food program. Robbins acknowledged she has not found proof that Omar knowingly took part in the fraud, but she wants to know whether Omar’s office helped anyone involved.
When Robbins tried to subpoena the records, the committee’s three Democrats voted no. “We didn’t get the information,” she said. Prosecutors have not charged Omar in the scandal, and Omar’s office did not respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment. The outlet also noted earlier reporting that Omar’s sister, Sahra Noor, registered her consulting business at a home tied to several Feeding Our Future convicts, though Robbins said her committee has found no direct payments linking Noor to people charged in the case.
Robbins described whistleblowers so afraid of losing their jobs that about 20 of them joined a Zoom call with their cameras off. “To this day, I don’t know who they are,” she said. She said two whistleblowers, Faye Bernstein and Scott Stillman, paid a price for speaking up, and that some workers feared being called racist for questioning suspected fraud involving Somali-owned businesses. She added that members of the Somali community have also helped her investigation. She said “there are good people who want to clean this up.”
Robbins took over the Minnesota House’s new fraud oversight committee in 2025. She said then-Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead seemed unaware of investigations into 65 child care centers, even though her own department had announced them that morning. “She seemed unaware of it, which was stunning,” Robbins said. After committee Republicans launched MNFraud.com in March 2025, Robbins estimated about 700 tips arrived in the first month, leading the committee into autism services, sober homes, assisted living, adult daycare and Medicaid-paid rides.
“We started seeing this business model,” Robbins said, describing how she believes some providers manipulated Minnesota’s Medicaid waiver programs. She said she has worked with the Justice Department, the FBI and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and has testified before the House and Senate in Washington.
Robbins is not running for re-election and believes some state officials are trying to wait her out, saying she has “dozens of outstanding data requests” that have gone unanswered. She worries Democrats could shut down the committee if they win control of the Minnesota House, and hopes federal investigators can obtain the six messages involving Omar’s office that her committee never received.
