“I’ve referred these allegations to DOJ’s new Fraud Division for criminal investigation,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X late Monday. The target is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, both Democrats.
“Minnesota state officials are not above the law,” Vance added, “and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimated whistleblowers, they must face justice.”
His move followed a report released earlier that day by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. The 205-page document says Walz and Ellison ignored rampant fraud in state social service programs funded wholly or partly with federal money. It describes false vendors and kickbacks, and says the two 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.”
The report estimates that about $300 million in federal child nutrition funds and potentially $9 billion in Medicaid-related funds were “lost” or placed at “serious risk.” It also accuses Walz of retaliating against employees who raised concerns.
The letter
Vance’s letter went to Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald and says the National Fraud Enforcement Division “must immediately investigate.” He posed several questions. “Who within the offices of Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison was aware of the systemic fraud concerns?” he asked. “Did Governor Walz lie in public statements suggesting that his office was unaware of the massive fraud in Minnesota?”
The committee had asked Vance, who heads a new anti-fraud panel, to review Minnesota’s program integrity measures, oversight, reimbursements and enrollment from 2019 to the present. It thanked him on X for taking action.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to questions about how it would handle the request.
Responses from Minnesota
Ellison said the allegations are unfounded. “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,” he said. His spokesman, Brian Evans, said Ellison’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has convicted more than 340 Medicaid fraudsters and regularly ranks among the most effective units in the nation.
Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann called the committee “nothing more than a joke” and said its work was meant to distract from “endless wars, gas prices, ICE and the president’s insider trading.” Walz himself told the panel in March that he was on the “front lines” of fighting fraud, and said Minnesotans had been “singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale.”
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, praised the committee’s work. “Fraudsters may be holding the smoking gun, but Tim Walz and Keith Ellison handed it to them, locked and loaded,” he said.
Minnesota’s programs are already under federal investigation. The Trump administration has withheld about $185 million in childcare funds, and last month federal officials announced charges against 15 people in Medicaid fraud schemes involving more than $90 million.
Sources
- Vance demands DOJ conduct criminal fraud probe of Walz, Ellison after release of committee report
- Vance refers Walz, Ellison to DOJ for criminal investigation into Minnesota fraud
