Feeding Our Future trial: The prosecution rests
As expected, four weeks in to the first trial in the Feeding Our Future case, the prosecution presented its last witness, an FBI accountant, and rested its case.
In this phase of the trial, prosecutors have called only 40 of the reported 200 witnesses on their pre-filed list. It’s the first trial involving any of the 70 defendants charged in the sprawling free-food scandal.
Then the seven defendants (all associated with the now-closed Shakopee restaurant Empire Cuisine) will present their cases. The trial is expected to stretch past this week into June. Only one of the seven defendants is expected to present their own witnesses.
A roundup of media coverage:
Defense set to present case after prosecution rests in Feeding Our Future trial | MPR News
Prosecutors in Feeding Our Future trial rest their case this week. (startribune.com)
Feeding Our Future fraud trial nears the finish line (sahanjournal.com)
Deena Winter of MN Reformer has been following the trial every day and on Friday, posted a thread on Twitter (X), which included the following:
As for the latter, readers will recall my visit earlier this month to the Afrique/Zawadi location in Bloomington, near the Mall of America.
As for the former, I wrote about the As-Sunnah mosque in this post from last month. The implication of Friday’s testimony appears to be that the As-Sunnah property in St. Paul was purchased with ill-gotten gains from the food scandal.
Are there more revelations to come?