WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance has asked the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation into Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison following the release of a report by a Republican-led House panel that said the Minnesota Democrats ignored widespread fraud in social service programs for political reasons.
“I’ve referred these allegations to DOJ’s new Fraud Division for criminal investigation,” the vice president wrote late Monday on X.
“Minnesota state officials are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimated whistleblowers, they must face justice,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released a 205-page report that said Walz and Ellison ignored rampant fraud in the state’s social service programs, which are funded wholly or in part by federal dollars.
The document alleged that little was done to stop fraudulent activity – including false vendors and kickbacks. In a letter to Vance, who is heading a new anti-fraud panel, Comer urged the vice president “to conduct a thorough review of all of Minnesota’s social services program integrity measures, oversight processes, reimbursements, and enrollment from 2019 to the present.”
When asked about Vance's actions Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann referred to the governor's testimony before Comer's committee in March.
In that testimony, Walz said he was on the "front lines" of fighting fraud that afflicts all states.
"But even as we confront issues similar to all of our sister states, the people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale," the governor said.
Meanwhile, Ellison said in a statement that the allegations in the House Republican report are unfounded.
"And the Vice President Vance’s referral is a political stunt from an administration that uses the machinery of government to target its perceived opponents while extending leniency to those aligned with its interests," Ellison said. "It is deeply troubling to see official powers and public resources diverted away from serving the people and instead aimed at pursuing political adversaries. That is not what government is for, and it diminishes public trust in our institutions."
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to questions about how it would respond to Vance's request.
Comer's report , titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion,” appears to contain little new from a preliminary report released in March.
Walz and Ellison, both of whom have appeared before Comer’s committee, deny its allegations.
“Republicans in Congress issued a report riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations in an effort to politicize the issue of fraud, instead of actually helping Minnesota protect tax dollars and go after fraudsters,” said Ellison spokesman Brian Evans.
Tschann called Comer’s panel “nothing more than a joke” and said its allegations were meant to “distract from endless wars, gas prices, ICE and the president’s insider trading.”
“Gov. Walz is glad to see fraudsters are going to prison,” he said. “If the committee is concerned about corruption, they should investigate why President Trump continues to let fraudsters out of prison.”
Minnesota's social service programs are already under investigation by the Trump administration with millions of federal dollars withheld as a result of those probes and billions more under threat.
‘A Smoking Gun’
The report drew on congressional testimony and private interviews of former and current Minnesota agency officials and emails from anonymous “whistleblowers” who said they faced retaliation when they sought to report fraud.
Among those questioned behind closed doors was former DHS Commissioner Tony Lourey, who testified that he communicated with Chris Schmitter, Walz’s former chief of staff, in 2019 about concerns involving the Child Care Assistance Program, non-emergency medical transportation and other state programs.
Former DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead also told the panel’s investigators that she reported fraud concerns to the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office, according to a transcript of her interview.
The report also rehashed the Feeding our Future scandal, a pandemic-era scheme to steal money that was meant to feed children.
It also said Walz and Ellison were “aware of credible and systemic fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs as early as 2019 but failed to take action to protect taxpayer funds.”
And it said the governor and attorney general took no action to protect Minnesota’s Somali community and protect them from losing its political support. Many of the defendants in the Feeding our Future scandal are Somali.
Evans said Ellison “fought fraud wherever possible and as soon as he was able to.”
With authority over Medicaid fraud, Ellison has convicted more than 340 Medicaid fraudsters, Evans said.
“In fact, Attorney General Ellison's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit regularly ranks as one of the most effective Medicaid fraud-fighting units in the nation,” Evans said.
Evans also said that in areas where Ellison has not had criminal jurisdiction, he has defended the state from frivolous litigation filed by fraudsters to hide their schemes, assisted federal authorities in their investigations and used his authority to regulate charities to investigate and shut down charities used to perpetrate fraud.
Last month federal officials announced criminal charges against 15 people in connection with Medicaid fraud schemes in Minnesota that involved more than $90 million.
Medicaid providers appeal
Facing the threat of losing $2 billion in federal money for its Medicaid program, known in Minnesota as Medical Assistance, DHS has disenrolled about two-thirds of more than 5,400 providers in 14 categories of Medicaid services that were considered “high-risk” for fraud.
On Monday, DHS said nearly 2,000 disenrolled providers have appeals in progress already, “with more coming in daily.”
Minnesota’s food stamp program is under investigation, as are other social service programs, including school meals and daycare services. The Trump administration has already withheld about $185 million in childcare funds.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, whose son Jack Emmer is a prosecutor on the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, praised the panel’s work in a statement.
“Fraudsters may be holding the smoking gun, but Tim Walz and Keith Ellison handed it to them, locked and loaded,” Emmer said.
Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout to add that Vice President JD Vance has request a Justice Department probe.
This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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