VP JD Vance Pushes for Fraud Probe of Minnesota Officials

Vice President JD Vance announced on Monday that he is referring Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and State Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Justice Department for a criminal fraud investigation tied to social services programs. Both Walz and Ellison are Democrats.

Vance 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.” His referral follows a letter and a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.

The committee’s report, released on Monday, accused Minnesota state officials, including Walz and Ellison, of being aware of extensive taxpayer fraud in federally funded social programs for years, without taking action to halt it.

Requests for comments made to Walz’s and Ellison’s offices on Monday night went unanswered, though their representatives dismissed the GOP report in comments to other media outlets.

The committee also urged Vance, who leads the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, to scrutinize Minnesota’s social services programs. Vance took on this role in February after President Donald Trump announced a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union address. Following this announcement, Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz suspended federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota.

At the time, Walz remarked that this action was unrelated to fraud, describing it as a “campaign of retribution.” He further critiqued Trump on February 25, stating that Trump was leveraging the federal government to target states like Minnesota.

The state faced federal scrutiny towards the end of Trump’s second term over allegations of fraud in daycare centers. In January, Minnesota declared that the childcare facilities implicated in those allegations were not acting improperly.

In April, federal law enforcement agencies executed a series of searches to investigate welfare fraud allegations based on search warrants that related to the misuse of American taxpayer funds. Trump and his allies alleged the fraud was executed by the state’s Somali community.

Walz expressed some approval of the raids, noting they were performed in cooperation with Minnesota authorities and occurred due to irregularities spotted and reported by state agencies. He commented, “That’s how the system is supposed to work, and our agencies will continue until fraudsters are apprehended.”

This is not the first investigation by the Justice Department under Trump involving Walz. In January, a probe was launched against Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of obstructing federal immigration enforcement via public statements. This investigation followed a rise in immigration officers being deployed to Minneapolis, which led to protests and the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers. Walz described the investigation as politically driven.