ST.PAUL, Minn. — A fellow Republican legislator called for a House investigation into claims that state Representative Ron Kresha, R-Little Falls, is guilty of financial fraud. Elliot Engen, of White Bear Lake, who is running for state auditor, said the House Fraud Prevention Committee should hold a hearing. It was unclear whether Engen sees a hearing as a way to clear Kresha, or political grandstanding, or a sign of internal GOP squabbling over political purity. Some House Republicans have derided Kresha as “RINO,” a derisive insider label for “Republican in Name Only.” Engen is at the Republican right fringes on issues like gay rights and abortion. In 2020 while in college at Hamline he started a Turning Point USA chapter to support the second Trump candidacy, although he now says he isn’t associated with Turning Point anymore.
Earlier: GOP legislator accused of loan fraud
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Engren: In apparent reference to his candidacy for state auditor: “We need an independent watchdog who has integrity, who doesn’t selectively choose when to call out bad behavior.”
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Kresha: In a Minnesota Reformer interview he called Engen misinformed: “Elliot Engen and I haven’t spoken. I am surprised that a potential Minnesota auditor doesn’t understand the difference between false allegations and actual fact.”