Last week, the Minnesota Senate Ethics Committee met to hear the case against Senator Nicole Mitchell who was charged in late April with felony burglary of an elderly woman with Alzeihmer’s. Mitchell refuses to speak about the incident to the public or answer questions to fellow senators, but continues to vote on legislation that impacts all Minnesotans.
After four hours of the Ethics Committee meeting, the four member committee went behind closed doors into an “executive session” and emerged with a new motion to punt the investigation of Sen. Mitchell until June 12th, weeks after the legislature adjourns for the year. Sen. Jeremy Miller (R – Winona) joined the two Democrats in passing the measure.
Before casting the vote, Senate President and chair of the Ethics Committee, Sen. Bobby Joe Champion (DFL – Minneapolis) when addressing the executive session they just had, stated “you know that that committee gathering is recorded for transparency purposes.”
Truth Hurts News was interested in what was said and what back room agreements were made to get a Republican on board with the Democrat’s objective of not investigating Sen. Mitchell while the legislature is still in session. So our very own MAGA Jesse reached out to the Senate Ethics Committee to get the recording.
Unfortunately, he was put in contact with legal counsel who stated the audio file would not be available until “final resolution of the complaint.” Withholding meeting video/audio from the public is the exact opposite of transparency!
More importantly, we don’t believe they have a legal right to withhold this information according to the Open Meetings law of the state. According to legislative research by the Minnesota House, the Minnesota Supreme Court has articulated that the purpose of the open meeting law is “to prohibit actions being taken at a secret meeting where it is impossible for the interested public to become fully informed about a public board’s decisions or to detect improper influences.”
The public has a right to know what was said in the Ethics Committee executive session and why a Senator, who broke into a home and is charged with felony burglary, is still a voting legislator with full rights on the Senate floor.
