CNN's Kyung Lah asked Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison the question every taxpayer would ask: who paid for the trips?
The investigation behind the question found that more than a dozen state attorneys general — Republicans and Democrats alike — took overseas trips organized by the Attorney General Alliance, a group that brings together the country's top state law-enforcement officials. The catch: companies covered the costs. The attorneys general went free.
Ellison was on the 2023 South Africa trip — safari, five-star hotel, wine tours. When Lah pressed him on who paid for it all, Ellison grew visibly uncomfortable. He said he understands "how this game is played," then pivoted to fentanyl pouring in from Mexico and the need for attorneys general to engage with international partners. Then he ended it: "I'd like to end the conversation right there."
The Trump administration has made government accountability a centerpiece of its agenda, and the Department of Justice under this White House has pushed for transparency from public officials at every level. Stories like this one are exactly why that push matters: the public deserves to know who is paying for the people sworn to enforce the law.
Ellison — the former U.S. congressman who has served as Minnesota's attorney general since 2019 — is not alone in this. The trips were bipartisan — both Republican and Democratic attorneys general took part — which makes the ethics questions cut across party lines. Ethics watchdogs have long warned that corporate-funded travel for public officials creates exactly the appearance of influence that erodes public trust, regardless of which party the official belongs to.
Ellison's defenders argue there is nothing unusual about it: attorneys general routinely travel to build the international relationships needed to fight cross-border crime, including the fentanyl trade devastating American communities. The Attorney General Alliance itself is a bipartisan organization, and the trips, they say, are working sessions — not vacations.
But the optics are brutal. A top law-enforcement official on a corporate-funded safari, then shutting down the interview when asked who wrote the check. Accountability starts with answering the question.
When the camera kept rolling and the questions kept coming, the attorney general had one move left. He walked off.