Previously unreported documents obtained by The Minnesota Sun reveal new details about two trips taken by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison at the expense of the Attorneys General Alliance (AGA), a nonprofit organization that received more than $3 million from the political action committee run by Pfizer.
These documents reveal that Ellison was one of 14 attorneys general who attended the AGA-paid trip to South Africa from November 27 to December 3, 2022, and then, the following year, was one of 17 who attended the all-expense-paid trip to Spain from November 27 to December 3, 2023.
Documents obtained by The Sun include authorization from AGA for Ellison to spend up to $26,000 on lay-flat business class airfare tickets to Spain, confirming that the attorney general visited the Mediterranean nation with his wife.
An itinerary sent before the trip to South Africa reveals attorneys general attended a series of dinners and lectures, as well as a “guided tour of the Mapungupwe collection with University of Pretoria law students, alumni, and distinguished guests.”
Other excursions enjoyed by Ellison and other guests of AGA included tours of the Mandela House, Soweto, and Constitutional Hill.
The itinerary was sparse on November 30, 2022, when the attorneys general and other AGA guests were scheduled to eat breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and then depart for the Aquila Game Reserve at 10:00 a.m. After lunch, they spent six hours on “Wildlife Tracking.”
While this event was held at a private game reserve about two hours outside of Cape Town, the AGA itinerary explained it included a “[d]iscussion on heightened conservation efforts, effective law enforcement and international collaboration to combat the illicit trade of endangered species.”
Ellison’s travels to Spain similarly included dinners, lectures, and meetings interspersed with cultural and tourism events.
These included an excursion to see “classic Madrid locations such as Plaza Mayor, Plaza de la Villa, and Puerta de Alcala,” while other trips included a tour of “Palacio Real, the official residence of the Spanish Royalty,” and a visit to “the ancient Roman ruins of the Gothic Quarter.”
A spokesman for Ellison’s office told The Sun on Wednesday that the trips to Spain and South Africa consisted of “working seminars where a bipartisan group of attorneys general met with officials from other countries to discuss issues that require international cooperation and enforcement.”
The spokesman said that attorneys general discussed “human trafficking, gender-based violence, and intellectual property rights” after traveling to South Africa, while “they met with government officials to discuss cybersecurity, computer crime, trade, and more” during the visit to Spain.
Asked about Ellison’s interactions with the various private sector guests in Spain, which included representatives from 23 organizations, including Pfizer, Amazon, and the tobacco company Altria, the spokesman stated these interactions had no bearing on the attorney general’s actions.
Ellison “is willing to meet with or hear from nearly anyone who wishes to speak with him,” the spokesman explained, stating that encounters with representatives of major companies would not “stop him from working to hold someone accountable if they violate the law or harm the people of Minnesota, as evidenced by the fact that he has sued both Amazon and Pfizer.”
While Ellison’s office characterized the trips to The Sun as learning opportunities, The Daily Wire reported in 2023 that AGA allegedly serves as a “‘laundromat’ that unsavory entities,” including the government of Qatar, “can use to hide their influence campaigns in American politics.”
A former aide to an attorney general told the outlet, “AGA has turned itself into is a laundromat for anybody who wants to do stuff without having to disclose it,” with its primary service being an ability to persuade attorneys general to attend “foreign trips with them.”
CNN similarly reported last year that Richard Painter, a former White House ethics attorney under former President George W. Bush, suggested that AGA was connecting attorneys general with lobbyists.
“It’s a whole game of getting the public officials together with the corporate people who in effect lobby to get what they want,” said Painter, who now teaches corporate law at the University of Minnesota. He told the outlet, “Public trust is destroyed by this kind of thing.”
When questioned by CNN over the trips, the attorney general suggested the outlet was trying to “embarrass” him and other attendees of the AGA events.
“I will say that there is real work that we are doing that is important for our constituents and has a lot to do with the fact that we live in a globalized world,” Ellison then told the cable network.
The Ohio Star last month reported similar documents revealing that Ohio Attorney General David Yost, a Republican, was granted similar travel expenses when he visited France at AGA expense just last year.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Oner phrase! PEERSONAL POLITICS AND ETHICS!!!!!!
All in a day’s work for an AG! (wink! wink!)