WASHINGTON — Minnesota state lawmakers accused local officials of shutting down critical investigations and harassing whistleblowers attempting to expose the massive welfare fraud that has transpired under Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) watch.
During an at times heated House Oversight Committee hearing on the fraud in Minnesota on Wednesday, state lawmakers laid the blame squarely at Walz’s feet.
“There was an Office of Inspector General within [Minnesota’s Department of Human Services] that had investigative authority to do surveillance warrants and seize electronics, and they were shut down,” Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove), who is running for governor, said during the hearing.
“They were told they could no longer do criminal investigations. They were told they could no longer meet with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents that were assigned to them without supervisors’ approval.”
She claimed that a committee appointed by Walz scuttled that oversight.
Walz dropped his reelection bid Monday amid the growing scandal, which assistant US Attorney Joe Thompson estimated could amount to over $9 billion in theft from taxpayers by fraudsters. Critics argue that Thompson is overestimating the extent of the problem.
Since 2022, the Justice Department has charged 98 people, 85 of whom are of Somali descent, and 64 of whom have been convicted. Robbins said the widespread welfare fraud in Minnesota dates back to at least 2009.
“Walz interfered with investigators who knew there was fraud,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) claimed during the hearing.
The Post reached out to Walz’s team for comment.
Whistleblowers who helped expose sweeping benefits fraud in Minnesota “live in a constant state of fear of retaliation,” GOP state Rep. Marion Rarick contended during her remarks before the powerful investigative panel.
She added that whistleblowers risked “being blacklisted from [employment in] all state agencies, and I would note, most likely our largest counties as well, which are Democrat-run.”
“Then there was a veiled threat of the use of military intelligence,” she continued. “They also described that supervisors asked them questions about their families, that to them, felt like a threat.”
In one instance, a whistleblower had been asked for details about where his or her children go to school and the location of the bus stops, according to Rarick.
“We have never seen anything on this scale. It is unbelievable,” Robbins contended during the hearing. “It is breathtaking, and cannot be overstated.”
Wednesday’s hearing doubled as a partisan slugfest, with multiple Republican reps bashing Walz and his party, while Democrats tried to pivot to their concerns about President Trump engaging in corrupt behavior.
Several Republicans, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who was allowed to sit in on the hearing, and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), called for Walz to step aside.
Democrats also brought up other instances of fraud under Republicans’ watch, including Florida and Mississippi. They tapped the Justice Department’s former special counsel, Brendan Ballou, as their witness.
Beyond concerns of fraud in Minnesota, GOP lawmakers zeroed in on fears that the stolen taxpayer dollars had been funneled to terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab in Somalia.
This was done through the informal “hawala” network, which operates outside of traditional banks and is known to have been used by Al Shabaab.
“We have evidence of it going back as far as 2012, where a man was convicted of sending $21,000 to al-Shabaab,” Robbins said of the funds being stolen and given to terrorist groups. “In 2011, two Minnesota women were convicted of sending money to different groups.”
“We have multiple references of how the al-Shabaab takes a cut when the money gets through the hawala network, so I think there’s ample evidence on this, and federal convictions.”
While reflecting on ways to better combat fraud, Minnesota GOP state Rep. Walter Hudson has concluded that his home state is spending more money “than we have the operational capacity to monitor.”
“We can’t prosecute our way out of this,” Hudson stressed to the House Oversight Committee. “That’s another way of saying we have to have controls on the front end.”
The Oversight panel’s hearing on Wednesday is part 1 of at least two planned public hearings to investigate how Minnesota became a hotbed of fraud.
The next hearing will take place on Feb. 10. Comer invited Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) to testify.
