Project Veritas has partnered with Omar Jamal, a man of questionable reputation in the Somali community to allege “ballot harvesting fraud” in Minnesota. Credit: Screenshot via Project Veritas' YouTube page.

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Finally, an answer.

Last night, we published a post about the work Omar Jamal performs at the office of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher. Omar Jamal recently appeared as one of the main sources in two controversial videos from a national right-wing media outfit alleging mail-in voter fraud in Minnesota. 

In the wake of that video, the Sheriff’s Office refused to disclose Omar Jamal’s job title or duties to Sahan Journal, despite our repeated requests.

In response to a public records request Sahan Journal filed with the office asking for this information last week, the Sheriff’s Office released that information today.

Some 12 hours after we posted our story, Kyle Mestad, director of the administrative division with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email to Sahan Journal that Omar Jamal works as a community service officer for the Sheriff’s Office. 

He began the job on March 2, 2020. His job is full time, paying an hourly wage of $20.70, for an annual salary of $43,073.78.

 Mestad revealed that Omar Jamal’s job duties include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Facilitating communication between law enforcement staff and residents. 
  • Performing public relations work in the community.
  • Explaining police work and procedures to the public. 
  • Conducting, recruitment and other community outreach activities to support office initiatives.

After Omar Jamal’s starring appearances and claims in the videos released by Project Veritas, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson stated that Omar’s comments were not a part of his professional work. 

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Joey Peters is a reporter for Sahan Journal. He has been a journalist for 15 years. Before joining Sahan Journal, he worked for close to a decade in New Mexico, where his reporting prompted the resignation...