Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is facing a difficult reelection campaign, and a March 2025 CNN report put his travel habits under an unflattering spotlight. According to CNN, corporate lobbyist money helped cover lavish overseas travel.

The benefits listed were hardly bare-bones government travel. They included stays at five-star hotels, first-class flights, African safaris, and other perks, a lineup that raises obvious questions about who paid and who gained access.

With Election Day approaching, the episode deserves another look, especially because Ellison did not exactly welcome CNN's questions. He attempted to defend the international travel, but his answers did not directly address every trip at issue.

Records obtained by CNN concerning events hosted by the nonprofit Attorney General Alliance, known as AGA, offered a window into the arrangements. One trip to South Africa was arranged and funded by AGA.

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The invitation list apparently was not intended for broad distribution. A text message from a staff member for the event organizer to an aide for one of the attorneys general made the desire for discretion plain.

“So just keep internal,” the staffer wrote. The list included attorneys general for Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, Minnesota, and other states.

According to CNN's reporting, the South Africa trip was one example of corporate lawyers and lobbyists paying for special access to state attorneys general. That access came through privately organized trips to resorts in the United States and destinations abroad.

AGA organizes several events each year, and the records referenced by CNN included an Italy trip scheduled for next month. The pattern was not confined to one destination or one overseas delegation.

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AGA defended its foreign delegations in statements, saying they helped officials build bipartisan relationships between public and private participants. The organization also said the delegations facilitated talks about human, drug and animal trafficking, money laundering and other forms of organized crime.

The group also offered an educational rationale for outings that might otherwise look more like deluxe tourism. According to AGA, wildlife and winery tours involved education about agriculture and environmental threats.

CNN said Ellison's office had not responded to two emails asking about AGA travel. “Ellison's office had not replied to our two emails asking about AGA trips,” CNN said.

CNN then put the central question directly to Ellison: “Why go on those international trips that are sponsored by corporate lobbyists?” His response began with fentanyl and Mexico rather than the specific travel details highlighted in the report.

“So ... from Mexico, we have a large amount of fentanyl coming through,” Ellison said. “There are a lot of international issues that we deal with every day,” he said.

Yet Ellison did not mention the South Africa trip or France in that answer. That omission left the most uncomfortable details sitting right where CNN had placed them.

Ellison argued that reporters and politicians play a familiar game of trying to embarrass an officeholder by saying, “Oh, he went on a trip.” He insisted there was “real work that we're doing that is important for our constituents” because the world is globalized.

BREAKING: Keith Ellison was just EXPOSED by CNN for taking lavish overseas trips paid for by corporate lobbyists.

- Five-star hotels - First-class flights - African safari tours - AND MORE Ellison appears visibly upset that they’re even asking about the trips. He abruptly ends the interview while staring down the reporter. Earlier this week, he attacked Ron Schutz for simply owning stocks. Meanwhile, Ellison is accepting lavish trips funded by the very companies he’s suing. WOW! — Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) October 5, 2026

That defense was broad, but the questions were specific: corporate sponsorship, foreign destinations, and luxury accommodations. At one point, Ellison chose to end the interview rather than continue the exchange.

The episode lands awkwardly beside Democrats' regular demand to get money out of politics. The criticism in the original commentary is blunt: Democrats want to restrict who can raise and spend campaign money while preserving the advantages available to themselves.

Ellison may describe the travel as work tied to international problems, and AGA may point to relationship building and education. But voters are still left with the image CNN documented: lobbyist-backed travel, luxury lodging, first-class flights, safaris, and an interview that ended before the controversy did.

The original commentary's verdict was equally direct: it expressed hope that Ellison would be voted out of office. As Election Day nears, the trips and his painful attempt to explain them remain part of the case voters are being asked to judge.

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