Did Keith Ellison lie about his reasons for pardoning child rapist?

On July 1, news broke that a three-person panel containing Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison had pardoned a man who had been convicted of repeatedly raping a 10-year-old girl, apparently to help him avoid deportation and remain in Minnesota.

Attorney General Keith Ellison denied that this was the case. KSTP reported a statement from Ellison’s office:

DHS is lying through their teeth about this pardon. It does not protect Vang from deportation. And before Trump and his allies say a word about what anyone else does, they should stop pardoning pedophiles, fraudsters, and law-enforcement assaulting insurrectionists. It’s baffling that the media would highlight this singular decision from a month ago based on a false statement from an agency that has lied repeatedly to the American people and that’s part of an administration waging a relentless campaign of harassment and retaliation against Minnesota, including by unlawfully weaponizing criminal investigations.

We now know that Ellison was being untruthful.

Fox News reports:

A 42-year-old illegal immigrant convicted of repeatedly raping a child was awarded a pardon by Gov. Tim Walz’s board of pardons after the state’s clemency commission recommended it be granted to him due to “immigration concerns.”

Fox News Digital reviewed documents from the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission, which voted 4-2 to grant a pardon to Laotian national Tue Lue Vang following his conviction for criminal sexual conduct. Vang admitted to repeatedly raping a girl over a multi-year period beginning when she was 10 years old. While the two board members who voted against granting a pardon noted the serious nature of Vang’s offenses, the four members recommending a pardon each listed concern about him being deported.

One commissioner, Zach Lindstrom, who voted in favor of granting the pardon, wrote in his recommendation, “Very tough case but the kids not having a father is not in the best interest of society,” referring to Vang’s six children. Artika Roller, another commissioner who voted in favor of the pardon, wrote, “The applicant stated the need for clemency related to immigration issues.”

So, contrary to what Ellison said in his statement, the question of this individual’s deportation was, in fact, key to the Clemency Review Commission’s decision to recommend a pardon for him.

The Attorney General still has questions to answer over this case, and Minnesota’s media will, no doubt, be dogged in pursuing answers.