Feeding Our Future: witness death threat edition
The headline in the Sahan Journal is shocking:
Feeding Our Future suspect threatened to kill witness, prosecutor reveals
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson says Salim Said threatened to kill a witness if they reported alleged fraud to state authorities and the FBI.
The statement was made in open court yesterday during a pre-trial hearing for the upcoming Feeding Our Future trial scheduled to begin February 3. Salim Said is one of four defendants who will be on trial next month.
The accusation marks another amazing twist in the multi-year free-food scandal, which has featured an attempted bribery of a sitting juror.
Yesterday’s pre-trial hearing ran for 2 1/2 hours and Sahan Journal reporters were there.
The death threat accusation came out in the context of a dispute over the admissibility of a video (trial exhibit GG-60) purporting to depict the bloody pistol whipping of an unnamed man by two unnamed men.
Prosecutors have further accused both Said and his co-defendant and Safari Restaurant co-owner, Abdulkadir Salah of having “gang affiliations.”
Sahan Journal quotes the lead prosecutor Thompson as saying in court:
“We do have witnesses that will testify to threats and acts of violence and gang affiliation,” Thompson said, adding that prosecutors and investigators found “a horrific video” on Salim Said’s Google drive. “Witnesses told us a chilling tale.”
It’s not clear if any of these witnesses are named on the official witness list, which runs to 175 names.
The most famous name on the list is Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey who may testify about his former policy aide, Abdi Salah (the other Salah’s brother), who is one of the four defendants next month.
Speaking of the mayor, three of the defendants facing trial next month (Said and the Salah brothers) list among the donors to Hizzoner’s campaign fund. The two Safari Restaurant owners also donated to the campaign of the Minneapolis city council member Jeremiah Ellison (son of the state Attorney General). Said also donated to the campaign of state Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis).
The two Safari Restaurant owners (Said and Salah) were also among 21 donors to a curious GoFundMe campaign organized by Aimee Bock under the banner Feeding Our Future II. Prosecutors included a reference to FOF II under their bribery accusations in trial exhibit HH-66.
The witness list also features some 15 of the 24 defendants who have pled guilty in the case so far. Two other defendants (Nos. 48 and 50) who have not pled guilty appear on the list. These individuals are husband and wife and are affiliated with the nonprofit Shamsia Hopes.
Some 70 defendants have been indicted so far across the entire case. Attorneys for the defendants attempt to cast the entire episode as a garden-variety, white-collar-crime case involving a dispute over alleged overbilling.
As the case has evolved over the years, it has taken on a much broader scope. The attempted juror bribery case mentioned above has been described as resembling some out of a mafia movie, involving a Hallmark gift bag and $120,000 in cash.
Now we have allegations of death threats and gang affiliations. You may recall another incident very early on. There were reports in February 2022 of a video circulating (no longer available) showing a then-recent wedding reception for a young female Feeding Our Future employee. The video showed the bride receiving a gift from vendors to the nonprofit consisting of a tray covered in $100,000 worth of gold bars. Again, a scene directly from a mob movie.
As I mentioned in my last post, the case next month features just four defendants but 11 luxury automobiles.
A few of the other swag items mentioned in the prosecutors’ exhibit list, listed by exhibit number:
GG-61-photo of guns on a table
GG-70-screen capture of yacht photo
GG-74-video of cash and Rolex
GG-75-photo with individual holding stacks of cash
GG-78- 18-second video of female throwing money on a table
Livin’ large in the M-P-L-S.