Star Tribune’s Meitrodt: ‘Clear’ ‘State Officials Ignored Whistleblowers’

During an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Minnesota Star Tribune Investigative Reporter Jeff Meitrodt said that it is clear state officials “ignored whistleblowers, very credible whistleblowers who came forward with allegations of misconduct before any of the money in the what we call the Feeding our Future scandal was paid out, and the [state] basically told those whistleblowers, thanks but no thanks.”

Meitrodt said, “[I]t’s clear that the state officials ignored whistleblowers, very credible whistleblowers who came forward with allegations of misconduct before any of the money in the what we call the Feeding our Future scandal was paid out, and the [state] basically told those whistleblowers, thanks but no thanks. They sent them to other places, and for, I think a couple of years, there was really a lot of concern by members of the public, but it seemed like the state government wasn’t showing the same sort of sense of urgency that it is today.”

He continued, “Now here we are going into an election year, and, suddenly, fraud is all anybody’s talking about, both Democrats and Republicans. And I think the administration is now making some really good efforts to try to get a handle on this problem, change some of the way these things [work], but for a lot of folks, it’s too little, too late.”

He also stated that there have been issues with fraudsters getting light punishments.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett