The lead prosecutor in the second Feeding Our Future trial said that a defendant who’s slated for trial later this year approached a witness in the courthouse on Tuesday and asked to speak with him in a bathroom.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said the alleged attempt at witness tampering is especially troubling in light of an attempt in June to bribe a juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial.

Aimee Bock, who founded and led the now-defunct nonprofit, is on trial with Salim Said, a former co-owner of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, for their alleged roles in a $250 million scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the pandemic.

Thompson that Abdinasir Abshir, who’s scheduled to face trial in April, approached witness Sharmake Jama in a courthouse hallway while testimony was underway. Jama, the former owner of Brava Cafe in Rochester, pleaded guilty along with four family members recently and agreed to testify against others charged in the case.

Jama told his lawyer about the approach, who in turn informed the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Thompson also noted that Abshir and his brother Asad Abshir, who’s also charged in the case, “noisily” entered the courtroom after the lunch break on Tuesday and sat briefly in the gallery close to the jury.

The Abshir brothers are accused of operating a fraudulent meal distribution site in Mankato that allegedly received $5.2 million in federal child nutrition program funds after falsely claiming to have served 1.6 million meals. Thompson said it was no coincidence that the brothers came into the courtroom after a postal inspector began testifying about Stigma-Free International, a nonprofit shell company that operated the meal site in Mankato and several others.

As they questioned Postal Inspector John Western, prosecutors showed jurors multiple six-figure checks, signed by Bock, that Feeding Our Future sent to Stigma-Free International soon after it opened its meal sites. Said is accused of using Safari Restaurant as a phony food vendor for the sites.

“It appears pretty clear to us that Mr. Said is communicating with his co-defendants about the contents of courtroom testimony so they can come when it’s of note to them.”

Thompson asked Judge Nancy Brasel to seize Said’s phone so investigators could get a warrant to determine if he was communicating with other defendants. But Said told the judge that he did not have the device in court.

“We directed him not to bring a phone to this courtroom,” Said’s defense attorney Michael Colich told Brasel. “We have, in an effort to make sure that Mr. Said isn’t accused of something, we’ve taken precautions in talking with him about what he should or shouldn’t be doing in the courtroom.”

Brasel declined to seize Said’s phone because he did not have it in the courtroom, but said she may order him to surrender it in the future if investigators find evidence of wrongdoing.

“The government will be able to tell if there’s anything deleted from your phone,” Brasel warned Said.

She also ordered Said and Bock not to speak with any witnesses or co-defendants in the case. The two are not in custody, and Brasel threatened to jail them if they violate the order.

“Here we find ourselves again with people trying to corrupt our process,” Thompson said.

Brasel did not prohibit defendants who are not part of the trial from watching the proceedings, but said that must sit along the aisle, away from the jury box.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.