Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was nearly shouted off stage during a campaign event on Monday in Minneapolis by his own supporters for not being soft enough on criminals.
Ellison spoke alongside Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan at a rally in Minneapolis in support of Flanagan’s Senate campaign.
“I used to be the congressperson for the fifth congressional district, and when I decided to leave that job and become your attorney general, and thank you for that, by the way, I worried: Are we going to have somebody who is absolutely take no shit from anybody get into that job? Are we going to have somebody who if—” Ellison said as protesters interrupted, screaming “Fund the CRU, Keith Ellison shame on you!”
The protesters were referencing the defunding of his office’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU).
Ellison attempted repeatedly to continue speaking over the chaos.
“Thank you, thank you. Let— you know what we. Let, let us, let us,” he said. “Come on, guys. Okay, I got you, brother… We gonna let them have their moment.”
He continued, “Thank you, guys. Hey, look. Let me tell you, let me tell you. I believe in freedom of expression, so let’s give it a hand for our friends over there. They get to be a part of it, too. Now, but let me, let me…”
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Ellison is facing backlash for suspending the CRU, which reviews cases for wrongful convictions. The program partners with the nonprofit Great North Innocence Project, a founding member of the Soros-funded Innocence Network.
Ellison tried to quietly suspend the unit earlier this month, and now his Democratic base is fuming.
Last week, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison advised the 16-person Conviction Review Advisory Board that he was suspending operation of his office’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU). Ellison did not issue an official press release, though several media outlets reported the suspension.
In his responses to media inquiries, Ellison cited budget constraints brought on after a federal grant that had supplemented the CRU’s efforts was discontinued. Under the circumstances, Ellison said that his office could no longer fund the CRU without compromising other core responsibilities of his office.
Previous reports described the CRU as operating with five full-time employees, including a director. The unit was funded by an undisclosed amount from the Attorney General’s budget, reportedly for two full-time employees. The remaining funding came from two federal grants totaling $800,000. We can safely estimate that the amount spent on this effort since its creation in 2021 approaches $2 million — an amount difficult to justify given the results it produced.
“Current budget constraints do not allow the program’s costs to be absorbed without compromising other core responsibilities,” Ellison said in a statement, blaming the Trump administration, according to Bring Me the News.
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