The House Oversight Committee released a report Wednesday morning alleging Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison covered up massive fraud in the state.
The report was released just hours before Walz and Ellison began their testimony before the committee.
Republicans on the committee launched an investigation into Walz’s handling of a series of multimillion-dollar fraud schemes in Minnesota last December.
While the investigation is still ongoing, Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, says testimony and documents obtained by the committee show Walz and Ellison “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,” Comer said.
The report claims both Walz and Ellison’s offices were aware of “credible fraud concerns” in the state’s social services programs as early as 2019, but “meaningful corrective action was delayed or avoided.”
It also alleges that whistleblowers experienced retaliation for reporting fraud and that Walz hired private investigators or law firms to “silence staff.” Whistleblowers also reported they were advised not to say anything about the 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 said.
Regarding the $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme, the report alleges that the Minnesota Department of Education continued payments voluntarily despite “identifying serious program deficiencies.” Additionally, the committee says the court never directed state officials to continue payments to Feeding Our Future or any other “fraudulent providers,” as the governor has previously claimed.
In 2024, the Office of the Legislative Auditor released a 120-page report that determined that the Minnesota Department of Education’s oversight of Feeding Our Future was “inadequate” and “created opportunities for fraud.”
Former U.S. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson previously said the total amount of fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could be $9 billion or more.
Walz has defended his handling of the crisis, saying his administration has “spent years cracking down on fraudsters” and has accused President Trump of “politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”