Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., has attended meetings with Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam minister, during Ellison’s congressional tenure, The Daily Caller reported.
Ellison, the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has said that although he worked for the Nation of Islam in 1995, he no longer had ties to Farrakhan, The Daily Caller reported.
The congressman has attended at least three meetings where Farrakhan was present, including a private visit to Farrakhan’s hotel room, The Daily Caller’s report said.
The Nation of Islam has a "prominent position in the ranks of organized hate," The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a profile of the organization.
Ellison released a statement Tuesday about one of the meetings, a 2013 dinner with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at which he and Farrakhan were present.
"As part of the 2013 U.N. General Assembly, and as negotiations were under way for what would become the Iran deal, I attended a meeting with President Rouhani and nearly 50 American Muslim leaders. This was not a private dinner, I didn’t know who in advance would be there, and my decision to attend was not an endorsement of the political views of the other attendees," Ellison said in the statement.
"As always, I disavow anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its forms," Ellison said in the statement.
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