Peter Hasson on September 26, 2018
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate domestic abuse allegations against him, but one of his fellow Democrats sounded skeptical that the move carried any real significance.
Ellison’s call for the House investigation came after it was revealed that Minnesota Democrats’ “independent” investigation into the allegations was being handled by the state party lawyer’s partner.
“Today I am announcing that I will submit a request for a House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations against me raised by a former partner,” Ellison said Wednesday in a statement first released to BuzzFeed.
“I am taking this step now because I am innocent and eager to see this entire matter resolved,” said Ellison, the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Democratic California Rep. Jackie Speier told BuzzFeed that an ethics investigation is “going to be a gesture more than anything else” because Ellison, who is running for Minnesota attorney general, is leaving Congress when his term ends in January.
“We’ve got to do something with the ethics committee generally because when members leave, you know, the investigation falls off,” Speier said.
Ellison’s accuser, Karen Monahan, responded with a statement slamming “smears and fabrications” she says “have been spread in the community and media” about her.
“I have shared more than one medical record stating the abuse. I signed a release statement, so my therapist could release a summary and notes from our sessions, which stated the details of the abuse and more,” Monahan said.
“Four different people told the investigator I came to them after and shared the same details; one person was my supervisor at the time. I have shared text which showed the date when the intimate relationship was over, Jan.2017. Other texts showed him consistently tell me how he missed me, regretted [losing] me, etc.,” she added.
Ellison’s statement to BuzzFeed again described the state party’s investigation as “independent.”
The lawyer handling that investigation, Susan Ellingstad, is partners with the state party’s attorney, Charlie Nauen, who The Associated Press reported handled the early stages of the investigation.
Ellingstad and Nauen are partners at Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P., which bears the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer-Labor Party attorney’s name.
“Keith Ellison is being investigated by the party that endorsed his candidacy after multiple allegations of domestic violence,” Ellison’s Republican opponent, Doug Wardlow, previously told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Any claim that this is an independent investigation is laughable.”
