During a Senate ethics committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, emphasized the legal work he performed a little more than two years ago for a nonprofit in his district was pro bono.
Because he didn’t get paid for his representation of Rev. Jerry McAfee’s Salem Inc. (which he said concluded in October 2022), Champion, an attorney, contended during the hearing that his sponsorship of a bill a few months later that provided a grant for one of McAfee’s organizations did not constitute a conflict of interest.
“At the end of the day,” Champion said during the hearing, “I was in the same financial position when I started the case as when I ended the case—with zero. My financial position did not change.”
The hearing was precipitated by an advisory opinion Champion requested earlier this month after the Minnesota Reformer first reported that the four-term DFL senator was the chief author of a bill in 2023 that ended up providing $3 million in grants to McAfee’s 21 Days of Peace.
Senate Republicans have also filed an ethics complaint against Champion, which is expected to be taken up by the ethics committee later next week.
Champion is sponsoring another bill this session that would appropriate $1 million to 21 Days of Peace. That organization is connected to Salem Inc. and led by McAfee.
Earlier this month, Champion, who serves as Senate president, announced he would temporarily step down as chair of the ethics committee while the committee works through the revelations that he’s helped steer millions in state funding to an organization tied to a former legal client.
At issue in the complaint filed by six GOP senators is that when Champion has been the chief author of bills providing millions in grants to McAfee’s nonprofits, he hasn’t disclosed the prior legal representation.
For about 30 uninterrupted minutes during the Tuesday hearing, Champion, with the help of his attorney David Zoll, laid out the facts surrounding his past representation of McAfee and Salem Inc., which involved legal services for the north Minneapolis nonprofit in a real estate foreclosure case.
Zoll has represented Democrats in a number of cases in recent years and was among a group of lawyers who represented a Democrat-allied organization that tried, and failed, to remove President Donald Trump from the ballot in Minnesota in 2024.
Zoll asked Champion during the hearing, “As you sit here today, do you believe you had a conflict of interest with either Senate file?”
“Absolutely not,” Champion answered.
Zoll premised his argument on the fact that Champion wasn’t paid for the work and that his representation of Salem Inc. “was completed prior to the introduction of either Senate file.”
Republicans who serve on the Senate ethics committee questioned the task of issuing an advisory opinion after a bill has already been enacted into law and while there is a pending ethics complaint.
“To me, an advisory opinion is something that should be issued before something is done,” Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, said during the hearing. “I’m not sure we’re in a position today to offer an opinion.”
Miller and other senators on the committee took turns asking questions about the nature and timing of Champion’s representation. Sen. Sandra Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, is serving as temporary chair of the committee, and told her colleagues they will deliberate on the issue on Thursday and then can choose to issue an advisory opinion or not. Committee membership is evenly split among Democrats and Republicans.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
