Vice President JD Vance referred Minnesota state officers, together with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Lawyer Basic Keith Ellison, to the Justice Division for investigation and potential prosecution following the discharge of a blistering Home Oversight Committee report analyzing profit fraud within the state.
On Sunday, the Oversight panel had despatched a letter to Vance, who helms the White Home Job Power to Eradicate Fraud, urging him to additional probe Minnesota.
“I’ve referred these allegations to DOJ’s new Fraud Division for legal investigation,” Vance posted on X Monday night. “Minnesota state officers should not above the legislation, and in the event that they facilitated fraud, lied beneath oath about what they knew, or harassed and [intimidated] whistleblowers, they need to face justice.”
The highly effective Oversight Committee started investigating theft of taxpayer funds in Minnesota after YouTuber Nick Shirley’s viral video in December of final yr detailed how purported sham baby care services received federal cash.
Minnesota is estimated to have misplaced at the least $300 million within the separate Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, which led to dozens of people dealing with costs.
A former federal prosecutor estimated final yr that as a lot as $9 billion routed by way of Minnesota’s 14 Medicaid applications might have been misplaced to fraud since 2018. Walz and different Minnesota officers have pushed again at that eye-popping estimate.
“The Committee’s investigation discovered that senior officers within the Minnesota state authorities … had been conscious of widespread fraud in federally funded social providers applications for years, possessed the authorized and procedural authority to cease funds and ban fraudulent suppliers, however repeatedly didn’t act,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote.
Vance underscored Monday that he’s not prejudging whether or not Minnesota officers named in that report must be criminally charged.
“We’re not going to do what the Biden administration did and make judgments of the legislation earlier than all of the info are in,” the veep advised Fox Information’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
“Clearly individuals weren’t taking fraud critically. Whether or not it rises to the extent of a legal violation, we’re going to research it.”
The Publish contacted Walz’s and Ellison’s places of work for remark.
Walz beforehand accused the Trump administration of “weaponizing the whole lot of the federal authorities to punish blue states like Minnesota.”
Earlier this yr, the DOJ opened an investigation into Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over accusations that they hampered immigration enforcement efforts. That probe is ongoing.
The Trump administration has additionally paused some $260 million in federal Medicaid funding for Minnesota in response to the fraud scandal.
“Since President Trump introduced the launch of the Fraud Job Power, we’ve got uncovered billions of {dollars} in fraud in opposition to the taxpayers,” Vance wrote in his legal referral to the DOJ’s Nationwide Fraud Enforcement Division.
“If state officers in Minnesota or wherever else within the nation facilitated fraud or seemed the opposite means whereas this theft was taking place, in the event that they actively prevented state and federal officers from stopping fraud … or in the event that they intimidated and harassed whistleblowers … they should be held accountable.”
