Vance Brings The Heat After Bombshell Report On Fraud Under Walz

Vice President JD Vance tasked the Justice Department with probing accusations that Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz looked the other way while fraudsters bilked the state’s social services for upwards of $9 billion. 

Vance referred the Walz administration to the DOJ on Monday night after the House Oversight Committee released a lengthy report accusing Walz and Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison of allowing their state to be systematically defrauded. The committee also accused Walz of targeting whistleblowers who tried to warn state officials about vulnerabilities in the system. 

“I’ve referred these allegations to DOJ’s new Fraud Division for criminal investigation,” Vance announced 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 [intimidated] whistleblowers, they must face justice.”

Leading the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on fraud, Vance sent the referral to Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, the head of the newly established National Fraud Enforcement Division. 

The 200-page report from the House Oversight Committee said that the Walz administration’s lax efforts to combat fraud led to $300 million in federal child nutrition aid being lost and put up to $9 billion in Medicaid-related funds in jeopardy. 

The committee said that Walz and Ellison were aware of major flaws in Minnesota’s administration of welfare benefits since 2019, but took no corrective action. Instead, Walz’s administration took action to target whistleblowers, the House report said. 

“If state officials in Minnesota or anywhere else in the country facilitated fraud or looked the other way while this theft was happening, if they actively prevented state and federal officials from stopping fraud and bringing fraudsters to justice, or if they intimidate and harassed whistleblowers who courageously tried to shine a light on the problem, they must be held accountable,” Vance wrote to McDonald. 

The Trump administration has focused on Minnesota in its anti-fraud crackdown. The White House shut down federal assistance payments to the state after independent journalist Nick Shirley published multiple videos showing apparent widespread fraud at so-called daycare centers. 

The administration is also taking action in Vance’s home state of Ohio after The Daily Wire reported on Ohio’s administration of funds to questionable businesses that claim to administer home healthcare.