Vice President JD Vance took decisive action on Monday. He called for a criminal fraud investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison. Both officials are Democrats. Vance’s referral to the Justice Department followed a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee. The report accused Minnesota state officials of being aware of taxpayer fraud in federally funded social programs but failing to address it.
Vance announced his decision on the social media platform X. He stated, ‘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.’ The committee’s report highlighted the alleged misconduct of Walz and Ellison.
The offices of Walz and Ellison did not respond immediately to the charges. However, they dismissed the GOP report publicly through other media outlets. The House Oversight Committee also urged Vance, the head of the White House’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, to scrutinize Minnesota’s social services programs further.
Vance assumed his role in the task force in February, announced by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address. Following the announcement, Vance and Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, suspended federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota. At that time, Walz claimed the actions were unrelated to fraud, describing them as retaliatory measures by Trump against blue states like Minnesota.
Federal scrutiny intensified in Trump’s second term, focusing on accusations of fraud involving daycare centers. The state claimed in January that those facilities operated correctly. However, in April, federal law enforcement agencies conducted raids linked to welfare fraud allegations. These operations were based on search warrants that cited ‘rampant fraud of American taxpayer dollars,’ according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump and his supporters attributed this fraud to Minnesota’s Somali community, which they often criticized. Walz praised the collaborative raids with Minnesota authorities and highlighted the effectiveness of state agencies in identifying and reporting such irregular activities. ‘That’s how the system is supposed to work,’ Walz wrote on X.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has targeted Walz. In January, the Justice Department launched an investigation into Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. They were accused of obstructing federal immigration enforcement through their public statements. This followed increased immigration officer presence in Minneapolis, leading to protests and the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers. Walz regarded the investigation as politically motivated.