FACT CHECK: Helping a rapist? Overseeing fraud? Minnesota state House candidate calls attack ad ‘deplorable’

The ad opens with ominous music and spends 30 seconds tying Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) state House candidate Jason Heaser to some of Minnesota’s biggest scandals. Heaser, a longtime prosecutor and Army veteran, is running against Rep. Danny Nadeau (R-Rogers) for House District 34A.

The ad, from the conservative group Renew Minnesota, makes four claims about Heaser. The public record contradicts one of them: he joined the attorney general’s office a year after the first arrests in the Feeding Our Future fraud. A second claim, that he’s a “top deputy” to Attorney General Keith Ellison, conflicts with his description of his job. The other two are too vague to check.

Heaser calls the ad’s claims “lies.” Renew Minnesota did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

What is Heaser’s role in the Attorney General’s Office?

The ad calls Heaser a “top deputy” to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (DFL).

Heaser says that’s wrong. He told Heartland Signal he’s a prosecutor in the criminal division and several organizational layers below the attorney general. “I am nowhere near any form of leadership,” he says.

Why make that claim? Minnesota Republicans are having success using the state’s ongoing fraud scandals as a point of attack against their DFL opponents, especially Ellison. Polls show him tied with GOP challenger Ron Schutz.

Did Heaser help a child rapist get a pardon?

The ad also claims that Heaser “cleared the way” for the pardon of a convicted child rapist. It doesn’t say who was pardoned, when it happened or how Heaser may have been involved.

Based on the images in the video, it appears the ad refers to Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian immigrant who pleaded guilty in 2006 to child sex abuse.

Vang was pardoned this summer by a panel made up of Gov. Tim Walz (DFL), state Chief Justice Natalie Hudson and Ellison. The decision was unanimous. It quickly drew widespread criticism, especially from the Trump administration, which deported Vang a month later.

Minnesota has a two-step process for pardons. It begins with the Clemency Review Commission, which reviews cases and makes recommendations to the Board of Pardons. Prosecutors, judges and victims are allowed input during the review process. But Heaser said he’s never been involved.

“I have never been asked to review a pardon,” he said. “I have never been asked to put any information in or my thoughts in on any sort of pardon. And I found out about the pardon that we were just talking about, Mr. Tou, over on the news.”

Did Heaser oversee the theft of millions from school meal programs?

The ad claims Heaser oversaw the Attorney General’s Office while millions of dollars were stolen from school meal programs. It doesn’t say which programs or when the theft occurred. But the mention of “Somali fraudsters” suggests the Feeding Our Future scandal.

Feeding Our Future is a nonprofit that said it provided free meals to school children. Instead, federal prosecutors say, the organization was a massive fraud scheme that stole $250 million from child nutrition funds. The government says the money was used to buy luxury vehicles, real estate and trips overseas. Most of the people charged were of East African descent. The head of Feeding Our Future, Aimee Bock, was sentenced to 500 months in prison.

Heaser said he had nothing to do with the case. The timeline backs him up. According to the Department of Justice, most of the crimes occurred from 2019 to 2021. The first arrests were made in 2022. Heaser didn’t join the attorney general’s staff until 2023.

Special treatment for sex offenders?

The final charge made in the ad claims that Heaser fought for “special treatment” for sex offenders. It doesn’t say what kind of special treatment, who got it, or when it happened.

Heaser said he can’t even guess at what it means.

“I have literally put hundreds of sexual predators behind bars,” said Heaser, “so if they mean special treatment by sending them to prison, then that’s what I do.”

Heaser focused on prosecuting sex offenders during his time with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. He continues that work at the state level and teaches law enforcement about internet crimes against children.

He called the ad “deplorable and insidious and disgusting.”

“That is one of the harshest lies of this, because that impacts not just the election, that impacts my ability to do my job as a prosecutor,” Heaser said. “This is the most insidious part of this, is that it impacts my ability to go sit down with a victim of a sexual abuse case, a victim who is trusting me to bring their case forward. And with this lies like this out there, it impacts my ability to do that.”

Heartland Signal made several attempts to get clarification and comment from Renew Minnesota. It did not return our messages.