Federal Grand Jury Indicts Ten Permanent Residents for Alleged Voter Fraud in Minnesota

<p>Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on September 30, 2026, that a federal grand jury has indicted ten lawful permanent residents accused of voting illegally or attempting to do so in multiple Minnesota elections, including the state’s August 2026 primary.</p><p>The ten defendants, originally from Liberia, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Bosnia, Germany, Ghana, and Lithuania, allegedly misrepresented their citizenship status to election officials to register to vote.</p><p>They are accused of voting in the 2022 and 2024 general elections, according to court records.</p><p>"Voter fraud erodes the public's trust in our electoral system, and it's vital to our democratic process that we do everything that we can to restore that trust," Blanche stated during a press conference announcing the charges. "The most basic way the Department of Justice can accomplish this restoration of trust is by working to make sure the only people voting in an election in the United States are American citizens who are eligible to vote."</p><p>The defendants are Bhator Konah Bryant, 61, of Liberia; Edvile Vaidoto Edmunds, 59, of Lithuania; Joshua Frederick Kofi Edzie, 63, of Ghana; Alan Barbu Kargbo, 48, of Liberia; Paul Kras, 78, of Germany; Fadil Rasim Ozegovic, 58, of Bosnia; Aparecido Donizetti Padovan, 62, of Brazil; Chris Adam Pettiquoi, 43, of Liberia; Christian Liam Schenk, 47, of Canada; and Hester Sophia Weihmann, 69, of South Africa.</p><p>Bryant is the only defendant charged solely with falsely claiming citizenship in 2024 to register.</p><p>Making a false citizenship claim to vote is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while voting by a noncitizen is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.</p><p>Blanche expressed frustration that the media has not taken the Justice Department's efforts to prosecute election fraud cases seriously.</p><p>"I don't know what the number is that will work for you guys. Whether it's 106, maybe it's 120," he said, referring to a hypothetical number of investigations. "At some point it has to become meaningful to the media."</p><p>Blanche noted that since President Donald Trump returned to office, the Justice Department has charged more than 90 individuals with voter fraud offenses, including 50 illegal immigrants in the past five weeks.</p><p>Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin stated there have been 10 voter fraud-related convictions and that over 1,600 active investigations into similar conduct are ongoing across the country.</p><p>Mullin did not respond to a question about how the department plans to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as SAVE, to identify potentially ineligible voters ahead of the midterms.</p><p>The Supreme Court ruled on September 29, 2026, that the administration may use the SAVE database for voter-eligibility checks while litigation continues. Historically, SAVE has been used to verify the eligibility of noncitizens applying for public benefits.</p><p>States’ use of the SAVE database is voluntary, but federal law generally prohibits states from conducting systematic voter-roll purges within 90 days of a federal election. With the midterms approaching, the Supreme Court’s ruling is expected to have limited immediate impact.</p><p>During the same press conference, Blanche announced that the Justice Department had filed a judicial misconduct complaint with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals against several Minnesota federal judges who spoke with The New York Times about pending cases.</p><p>The article, published on September 17, centered on an interview with Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, who stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violated nearly 100 orders from the federal district court in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge, which involved hundreds of federal agents in Minneapolis in January 2026.</p><p>Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, indicated that the alleged violations likely resulted from incompetence and staffing shortages at the Justice Department.</p><p>Blanche stated that Schiltz's comments to The Times violated judicial canons and ethical duties.</p><p>"We have asked the Eighth Circuit to conduct an investigation, and in the meantime, we ask that these judges recuse themselves from every case involving DHS, either criminal or civil in nature, because of the obvious bias they have shown in this article," Blanche said.</p><p>Schiltz responded to Fox News, stating, "As legal-ethics experts have confirmed, I was acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to The New York Times. Indeed, in February of this year, the Committee on Codes of Conduct issued an advisory opinion to emphasize that federal judges may ‘speak[] and writ[e] on core judiciary matters such as advocacy for the rule of law and judicial independence.’ That is exactly what I did."</p>