Ethics panel weighs whether Senate president violated rules in pushing funding for past legal client

Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion spent more than an hour in front of an ethics committee Tuesday defending his push to fund a north Minneapolis non-profit organization he also represented as a private attorney.

Champion, a Democrat from Minneapolis’ North Side, was adamant that the relationship doesn’t present a conflict of interest, saying he represented the organization pro bono and therefore didn’t stand to profit.

“At the end of the day, I was in the same financial position when I started the case as when I ended the case: with zero,” Champion said. “My financial position did not change.”

Champion is seeking an advisory opinion from the Senate Subcommittee on Ethics after news reports revealed that he carried legislation in 2023 that awarded $3 million to 21 Days of Peace, which is run by the Rev. Jerry McAfee. He did not disclose at the time that he had previously represented the Minneapolis pastor in several court cases.

Last month, Champion introduced a bill to award another $1 million to 21 Days of Peace.

A Minnesota Star Tribune analysis found that the relationship between Champion and McAfee goes back more than a decade, with Champion having represented McAfee’s New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in a 2012 lawsuit filed by a lending firm.

Champion said he does regular pro bono legal work for members of his community, including work for McAfee’s Salem Inc. In exhibits presented to the committee, Champion said his legal work was completed on the case in 2022 and that any subsequent motions were made by attorneys on the other side. Final orders in the cases were issued in February and April 2023.

State law defines a conflict of interest as when a legislator “is required to take an action or make a decision that would substantially affect his or her financial interests or those of an associated business.”

Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, said he was struggling with the purpose of issuing an advisory opinion related to legislation that has already been passed, signed into law and the funding disbursed.

“To me, an advisory opinion is something that should be issued before something is done,” he said. “I’m not sure we’re in a position today to offer an opinion.”

Senate Republicans have filed a separate ethics complaint against Champion over the conflict of interest concerns, alleging he violated the chamber’s rules when he helped steer state funds to his former legal client.

A hearing is scheduled for early May to take up that complaint. The committee, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, plans to act on the advisory opinion request separately. There are only a few weeks remaining in session before the Legislature’s May 19 adjournment date.

The Minnesota Senate last issued an advisory opinion in 2010, after a state senator helped obtain special fishing regulations for a lake on which he owned a cabin. The committee found that former DFL Sen. Satveer Chaudhary didn’t have a conflict of interest in pushing for the change, but it gave him a rare reprimand for threatening “public confidence” in the institution.

Champion previously chaired the ethics committee but stepped down temporarily while it deliberated on his case. New Senate Ethics Subcommittee Chair Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, said members can take several actions, including not weighing in on the matter at all.

Pappas acknowledged that she hasn’t read news coverage about Champion’s possible conflicts of interest.

The ethics subcommittee will meet Thursday to deliberate on Champion’s request.