Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of claims of widespread fraud in the state’s federally funded welfare programs for years but acted only to retaliate against whistleblowers instead of addressing the problem.
That’s the conclusion of a 54-page House Oversight Committee report released Wednesday.
Both Walz and Ellison were scheduled to testify before the committee Wednesday morning to face questions about fraud schemes that President Donald Trump has said may have cost taxpayers as much as $19 billion.
Comer began grilling the Minnesota governor early in the hearing Wednesday.
Dozens of defendants, many of them Somali immigrants who settled in Minnesota, have been indicted or convicted in a sweeping federal fraud investigation.
“Testimony obtained by the Committee reveals that Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of widespread fraud in social service programs, lied about their knowledge of the fraud, and retaliated against employees who dared to raise concerns,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a statement released before the hearing.
“Instead of protecting vulnerable Americans, they handed over billions in taxpayer dollars to fraudsters and threw their own state employees under the bus,” Comer added.
Comer’s committee launched a probe in December into the state’s public benefits programs after allegations of fraud in empty daycare centers in Minnesota’s federally funded childcare benefits program.
Just the News reported:
The investigation also centered on a Minneapolis fraud ring connected to the state’s Somali immigrant community that exploited the state’s federally-funded food program. The Department of Justice first charged 47 people in 2021 as part of a $250 million scheme involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future that prosecutors alleged diverted federal COVID-19 relief funds for personal gain.
“Attorney General Merrick Garland, who served during the Biden administration, called it the largest pandemic-era fraud scheme ever identified,” according to the investigative online news outlet.
Walz has acknowledged there is fraud in his state, but has claimed his administration worked to remedy it.
However, the Oversight Committee in its report alleges the evidence shows the opposite, based on testimony from nine current and former state officials who oversaw benefit programs within the state’s Department of Education and Department of Human Services.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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