Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins fired off a formal letter to Rep. Ilhan Omar on April 22, calling out the congresswoman for refusing to appear before a state oversight committee investigating her ties to the massive Feeding Our Future fraud, a scandal federal prosecutors say drained hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Omar didn't just skip the hearing. She never responded to the invitation at all.
Robbins, who chairs the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, told Fox News Digital that her office made repeated attempts to reach Omar before resorting to the letter. The committee had scheduled a hearing specifically to examine Omar's potential connections to the fraud network, and the congresswoman simply didn't show.
Robbins put it bluntly:
"She didn't even respond, ghosted us."
When asked whether Omar's office had made any contact, Robbins was equally direct: "No, we've sent multiple emails, multiple letters, nothing."
The April 22 letter lays out a sweeping set of records requests. Robbins 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 letter set a May 5 deadline for a written response and all requested materials.
Robbins also sought records of any contact between Omar and individuals charged or implicated in the Feeding Our Future case, including nonprofit founder Aimee Bock and what the letter describes as "dozens of alleged co-conspirators."
Perhaps most pointed: the letter requested "any and all" communications between Omar and political donors who were later charged in the case. That request touches on a pattern of financial connections between Omar and figures linked to fraud in Minnesota's Somali community, a pattern that has drawn growing scrutiny over campaign donations from individuals later accused of criminal conduct.
At the center of the committee's inquiry is the MEALS Act, a federal COVID-19 relief measure passed in 2020 that Omar sponsored. The law expanded access to child meal reimbursements for nonschool distributors during the pandemic. Republicans argue it stripped away safeguards that had kept the nutrition program from being exploited on a massive scale.
Robbins told Fox News Digital the connection was direct: "And her Meals Act is what created the conditions that allowed Feeding Our Future to happen."
The Washington Examiner reported that Robbins described the legislation in even starker terms at the committee hearing, saying the MEALS Act "loosened the guardrails on the federal nutrition program that led to the scandal we now call Feeding Our Future." She added: "I think understanding her role in this is important in the history of understanding this case."
Federal prosecutors have said the Feeding Our Future scheme involved the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded child nutrition aid. The broader fraud crisis tied to pandemic relief programs is believed to reach into the tens of billions.
During the Tuesday committee meeting, lawmakers played footage of Omar appearing on Somali-language television to promote Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis as a meal distribution site. That restaurant was later identified as a significant participant in the Feeding Our Future network.
Just The News reported that Republicans on the committee are zeroing in on that video as evidence Omar actively promoted sites that became conduits for fraud. The committee discussed ties between Omar and individuals within the Minneapolis Somali community who were associated with the scheme.
Robbins framed the stakes in broad terms during the hearing, saying Omar and other officials "are both key players in the child nutrition scandal and fraud, billions of our tax dollars that were stolen, and neither of them came to answer questions about their involvement." She went further: "She took the guardrails off, so billions of our tax dollars could be stolen."
Omar's office has not publicly responded to the letter or the committee's requests. Fox News Digital reached out to her office for comment.
The Feeding Our Future inquiry is hardly the only cloud over Omar. She faces a possible ethics investigation into her personal financial disclosures, a saga that has already produced sharp questions from congressional investigators after her reported net worth swung wildly from $30 million down to under $100,000 in revised filings.
Vice President JD Vance has also publicly accused Omar of committing immigration fraud, adding federal-level political pressure to a figure already facing state-level demands for accountability. Those accusations have prompted their own wave of coverage and calls for formal charges.
Robbins, for her part, is running for governor of Minnesota, a campaign that gives her both the motive and the platform to press the issue. But the records requests in her letter are specific, documented, and tied to a fraud case that has already produced federal indictments. Whether Omar responds by the May 5 deadline will say a great deal about how seriously she takes the committee's authority, and how much she wants voters to know about her role in the conditions that made the fraud possible.
Omar's office has offered nothing, no testimony, no documents, no explanation. For a member of Congress who built her brand on speaking truth to power, the silence is telling.
When a state legislature asks you to account for hundreds of millions in stolen taxpayer dollars, "ghosting" is not a defense. It's a choice, and voters in Minnesota deserve to know what she's avoiding.
