House Report: Walz and Ellison Knew About Massive Fraud Schemes in Minnesota, Retaliated Against Whistleblowers

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The House Oversight Committee released a report Wednesday morning alleging that top Minnesota officials knew about massive fraud schemes in the state as early as 2019, but continued funding them anyway.

According to the bombshell report, their failure to curb the fraud allowed $300 million in child nutrition funds and up to $9 billion in Medicaid funds to be lost or at risk.

The committee alleges that the Minnesota Department of Education continued payments to the Somali-led $250 million Feeding Our Future scam, despite “identifying serious program deficiencies.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D.) has previously claimed that state officials had no choice because they were ordered to continue the payments.

But according to the committee, no law enforcement agency, including the FBI, ever directed state officials to continue payments to Feeding Our Future or any other “fraudulent providers.”

The report also alleges that whistleblowers faced retaliation for reporting fraud and that Walz hired private investigators or law firms to “silence staff.” Whistleblowers alleged they were advised not to say anything about the largely Somali fraud because they would be called “racist” or “Islamophobic.”

“The Committee has found that Minnesota lacked adequate oversight efforts to verify that taxpayer dollars were being used appropriately and could have stopped the flow of money to fraudsters at any time but chose not to for fear of political retribution from the politically active Somali community,” the report stated.

While the investigation is still ongoing, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement Wednesday that testimony and documents obtained by the committee show that Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D.) “lied about their knowledge of the fraud, and retaliated against employees who dared to raise concerns.”

“Instead of protecting vulnerable Americans, they handed over billions in taxpayer dollars to fraudsters and threw their own state employees under the bus. Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison are appearing before the Committee because the American people deserve clear answers about how this rampant fraud was allowed to flourish under their watch,” the chairman stated.

The report was released shortly before Walz and Ellison appeared before a committee hearing titled, “Oversight of Fraud and Misuse of Federal Funds in Minnesota: Part II.”

“For years, Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison presided over one of the most extensive breakdowns of oversight this Committee has ever examined,” Comer stated in his opening remarks.

“The Oversight Committee has spoken to more than 30 whistleblowers, many of them Minnesota state employees and Democrats, who testified that they faced retaliation from the administration of Governor Tim Walz,” Comer said.

Walz defended his handling of the fraud crisis in his opening statement, claiming his administration has spent years cracking down on fraud and accusing President Trump of politicizing the issue.

Both Walz and Ellison attempted to steer the conversation away from the fraud and toward what they deemed a more favorable issue for them, the Trump administration’s recent ICE operations in the state.

“The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale,” the governor stated. Under the guise of combating fraud, the federal government has flooded Minnesota with masked, untrained, and unaccountable agents who are wreaking havoc in our communities.”

The governor went on to blast what he called ICE’s “horribly misguided campaign” that “trampled on the constitutional rights of Minnesotans.”

Ellison also accused the Trump administration of “politicizing” the issue, stating that it “unleashed over 3,000 masked and armed agents on the streets of Minnesota” under the “pretext of combating fraud.”

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) tore into the Minnesota AG, saying: “You are the only one who thinks protecting taxpayer dollars is political.”

“My concern is that you actively obstructed this investigation in exchange for campaign donations — a quid pro quo,” Emmer added. “If these concerns are proven to be true, you should be disbarred, and you should go to jail.”

A recording of a December 2021 meeting between Ellison and key figures in the Feeding Our Future scandal emerged last year, showing the him pledging support to a group of Somalis fraudsters who would soon become his family’s campaign donors.

Ellison dismissed the committee’s findings on the fraud as a “political matter” and “not serious.”

Rep. Brandon Gill questioned Walz about the “nearly unbearable retaliation” whistleblowers faced in Minnesota throughout the fraud crisis, focusing on the allegations of a lifelong Democrat.

Walz claimed to have no knowledge about any retaliation against whistleblowers.

“We have strong whistleblower protections,” Walz said.

“That’s not what the whistleblowers are saying!” Gill shot back.

“The American taxpayers have had enough. They’ve had enough,” Comer told Walz. “They want their taxpayer dollars spent wisely. We all support social programs to the vulnerable, but if you’re going to waste the money to fraudsters, then we have to stop and recalculate.”

Comer said the House Oversight Committee plans to continue its investigation into “the massive waste, fraud, and abuse in Minnesota’s social services programs.”