Lawmakers grilled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison on Capitol Hill Wednesday over allegations of massive fraud in the state’s taxpayer-funded welfare system.
As reported on Thursday’s AM Update, the Democrat duo faced tough questions before the House Oversight Committee as Congress probes potential fraud and corruption in the North Star State. So far, the feds have prosecuted and convicted dozens, mostly members of Minnesota’s Somali community, relating to three major schemes: a meals program for needy children called Feeding Our Future, a program for individuals at risk of homelessness, and an autism therapy program.
The scale of the alleged fraud is believed to total at least $9 billion in plundered taxpayer dollars. The stunning scope of the accusations and backlash to it forced Walz to suspend his re-election campaign earlier this year.
Walz in the Hot Seat
Congressman Pat Fallon (R-TX) pressed Governor Walz on data surrounding the Somali community’s use of state services in Minnesota:
FALLON: Do you believe the 70,000 strong Somali community as a whole has made a positive impact on your state?
WALZ: I do…
FALLON: And do you have any idea what percentage of the native born Minnesotans, all races, live in poverty in your state right now?
WALZ: I don’t have specifically.
FALLON: I’ll share it with you. It’s 8 percent. For the Somali community, it’s 52 percent. How about receiving food stamps? I’ll run it down with you. 7 percent and then compared to 54 percent in Somali community… One family member, at least, on Medicaid? It’s 18 percent for Minnesota, 73 percent for the Somali community… Governor, do you happen to know what the percentage is of all those who have currently been charged in this staggering social services fraud scheme were native born Minnesotans? What percentage?
WALZ: I do not have that.
FALLON: I think it was 85 out of 98, which comes out to 13 percent Minnesotan and 87 percent Somali Minnesotan… The only way this kind of fraud can reach this scale is if there’s people in power that are colluding and collaborating and willfully blinding themselves to the realities around them.
Another fiery moment came when Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) pressed the former vice presidential nominee on allegations that the fraud ran undetected because officials were allegedly wary of backlash from Minnesota’s politically active Somali voting bloc. Watch:
GILL: Is it racist for a government official to identify fraud?
WALZ: No, no.
GILL: Is it Islamophobic… to identify fraud?
WALZ: No, I don’t believe it would be.
GILL: How come multiple whistleblowers have said that your administration told them not to say anything about widespread fraud across multiple agencies because doing so would be considered racist or Islamophobic?
WALZ: I can’t speak to it because it’s not anything I would say.
GILL: We heard from [State] Rep. Kristin Robbins quote, ‘We have dozens of credible whistleblower report saying the exact same thing that people were told not to say anything because they’d be called racist or Islamophobic or it would hurt the state.’ You think it’s racist or Islamophobic to highlight and try to stop fraud?
WALZ: It is not.
GILL: It’s not, but that was the message your administration was sending to multiple whistleblowers.
But it wasn’t all tense. Walz got a chance to criticize President Donald Trump when a Democrat congresswoman from Washington asked him why he thinks the administration has become so “obsessed” with the alleged fraud.
“I think it’s been pretty clear the president does not like me personally,” the governor speculated. “I think he continues to tell lies about our electoral system, claiming that he’s won all three times when he lost all three times. I think he has people around him who were trying to find quotas around immigration, and they saw a perfect storm, if you will, that included some Somali folks.”
He then inexplicably brought up… the Epstein Files. “If we’re going to condemn folks, there’s no Somali folks in the Epstein files, things like that,” Walz claimed. “But I don’t know. It’s an obsession, and I come back to it again – I think because we are so ideologically opposed to making children go hungry, people go unhoused. We invest in education, we invest in research, and we believe everybody has a place. And so I think it’s just personal about how we do business.”
Ellison Under Fire
The attorney general also faced his fair share of tough questions, with lawmakers trying to get to the bottom of what his office has chosen to prosecute. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) did not take kindly to Ellison’s obfuscations.
HIGGINS: So you have the authority to lead your state’s effort to respond to this massive fraud at the state level from within the healthcare realm where government money is being stolen at very very high levels, unprecedented levels in your state. Are you leading that effort for the state of Minnesota?
ELLISON: …We are leading the effort to prosecute Medicaid fraud in Minnesota.
But the congressman wasn’t having it. “I’m not talking about Medicaid fraud. Don’t hide behind that. You have the authority to prosecute anything, clearly, that the governor asked you to,” Higgins said. “I’m giving you an opportunity, sir. Are you leading the criminal investigative effort into this massive fraud across the board in the healthcare spectrum, in the state of Minnesota, or not?”
When the attorney general replied that his office is “following the law,” Higgins had enough. “You are not leading. You’re not leading,” he concluded. “I’m gonna say, Mr. Chairman, that the attorney general of the state of Minnesota should resign.”
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