Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison is facing accusations of domestic abuse from his former girlfriend, yet still managed to win in Tuesday’s primary for Minnesota attorney general.
The outspoken critic of President Trump announced in June that he would be leaving his seat representing Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, which has remained a Democratic stronghold since at least 1979 when Martin Sabo took office.
On Saturday, abuse accusations against Ellison surfaced on Facebook when his ex-girlfriend’s son claimed to have seen video of the Democrat caught in the act. Karen Monahan later confirmed that what her son was claiming was true, and that she had in fact been physically dragged off of a bed by Ellison while he screamed at her.
Monahan, arguing that she shouldn’t need to release the video, claims that she put her “camera on to video him,” but Ellison and his campaign have denied the accusations.
“Karen and I were in a long-term relationship, which ended in 2016, and I still care deeply for her well-being. This video does not exist because I have never behaved in this way, and any characterization otherwise is false,” Ellison said in a statement, according to CBS.
He also referenced the accusations during his Tuesday night victory speech, but again took the time to “assure” his supporters that they are “not true.”
Ellison, though, is no stranger to controversy, and has repeatedly faced criticism from Republicans for his ties to the Nation of Islam and other left-wing radicals. In 2016, CNN reported on Ellison’s “decade-long” association with the Islamic organization, and his defense of its leader, Louis Farrakhan, who called Hitler a “very great man.”
According to The Daily Caller, Ellison himself has espoused similarly radical positions, comparing the attacks on the World Trade Center to the Reichstag fire.
“After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted,” Ellison remarked, but stopped short of claiming the U.S. was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.
He also attended a fundraiser for activist Esam Omeish, who praised a founder of Hamas and promoted the “jihad way.” The accusations against Ellison finally reached a head in 2016 when the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into his case after it was discovered that he traveled to Mecca on the dime of a group founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Furthermore, Ellison demonstrated public support for the murderers of Minneapolis police officer Jerry Haaf in 1992, and even spoke at a demonstration for one them, The Weekly Standard reports.
Ellison, now seeking Minnesota’s top law enforcement job, apparently led the crowd in a chant of “we don’t get no justice, you don’t get no peace.”
Among other accused cop-killers the congressman has defended is Kathleen Soliah, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the early 2000’s for her involvement in the attempted bombing of Los Angeles police officers in 1975.
During a speech for a fundraiser in support of Soliah, Ellison also made favorable remarks about Assata Shakur, an expat now living out her days in Cuba after she was convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper.
Ellison will face GOP nominee Doug Wardlow for attorney general during November’s election.
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Photo by Keith Ellison.
