Rep. Keith Ellison, under fire for Farrakhan ties, claims he hasn't seen the controversial leader since 2013

Republican Rep. Todd Rokita gives the inside story on the resolution he introduced condemning the Nation of Islam leader for 'promoting ideas that create animosity and anger' toward Jewish Americans and the Jewish religion. #Tucker
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said Sunday that he had not met with or spoken to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan since 2013 -- despite the anti-Semitic minister's claim that the congressman visited him in Farrakhan's Washington D.C. suite more recently.
Ellison, the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote in a blog post on Medium that "I do not have and have never had a relationship with Mr. Farrakhan, but I have been in the same room as him." According to Ellison, he and Farrakhan attended the same New York meeting with Iran President Hassan Rouhani "and nearly 50 others."
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Ellison said he used the meeting to push "for the release of an American political prisoner," whom he did not name. The congressman added that he "didn’t know Mr. Farrakhan would be there and did not speak to him at the event."
"Contrary to recent reports, I have not been in any meeting with him since then, and he and I have no communication of any kind," Ellison wrote.
Ellison's article contradicts claims made by Farrakhan in an interview published on the minister's Facebook page in December 2016. At the time, Farrakhan told interviewer Munir Muhammad that Ellison and Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., "visited my suite and we sat down talking like you and I are talking."
Farrakhan did not specify when the meeting with Ellison and Carson took place. The Indianapolis Star reported that Carson met with Farrakhan in 2015. The Washington Post reported that Carson had met with Farrakhan in 2016 "to discuss critical issues that are important to my constituents and all Americans."
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A spokeswoman for Carson did not immediately respond to questions from Fox News about the meeting, including when it took place, whether Carson and Ellison met with Farrakhan together or separately, and whether Ellison's article was true or false.
Farrakhan drew backlash after a speech in Chicago last month, when he said such things as “powerful Jews are my enemy” and “the Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men.” Afterwards, the conservative publication The Daily Caller reported that seven congressional lawmakers – all Democrats and all part of the Black Caucus, including Ellison -- had current or past ties to the minister.
Ellison also disavowed what he called Farrakhan's "intolerant and divisive language" toward Jewish people.
"I believe my long record of fighting and condemning all prejudice, including anti-Semitism from whatever source, should speak for itself," he wrote. "But those who aim to make me guilty by false association have made themselves hard to ignore."
In the 2016 Facebook video, Farrakhan critized Ellison for distancing himself from Farrakhan when he ran for Congress and when he sought the chairmanship of the DNC following the 2016 election.
"If [Ellison] has to bash me in order to get a job, help yourself, brother," Farrakhan said. "Say whatever you think will get you your DNC job. But you have not diminished me one atom’s weight. What he’s done is diminished himself. He cannot say that he didn’t follow me at one time … He cannot say that we did anything to harm him or his aspiration."