Minnesota Gov. Walz, AG Ellison to testify at House Oversight Committee hearing on fraud in March
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison will testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing on fraud and the "misuse" of federal funds in the state in March, Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, said on Friday.
Republicans on the committee launched an investigation into Walz's handling of a series of multimillion-dollar fraud schemes in Minnesota last December. Members, at the time, asked in letters the governor and Ellison for "documents and communications showing what your administration knew about this fraud and whether you took action to limit or halt the investigation into this widespread fraud."
"Americans deserve answers about the rampant misuse of taxpayer dollars in Minnesota's social services programs that occurred on Governor Walz's and Attorney General Ellison's watch," Comer said in a news release on Friday.
The hearing is scheduled for March 4. WCCO has reached out to Walz and Ellison for comment.
Republican Minnesota state Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson and Marion Rarick, along with Brendan Ballou, a former prosecutor for the Justice Department who is appearing as the Democrats' witness, testified in front of the committee earlier this month.
Robbins said, as chair of a fraud prevention committee in the Minnesota House, she's been "working to uncover the massive fraud under Tim Walz, propose solutions and hold state agencies accountable."
She also testified that her committee has evidence that, as far back as 2012, money has been sent back to al Shabaab, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization and al Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia. The Treasury Department said last month that it would investigate whether tax dollars from Minnesota's public assistance programs made their way to al Shabaab.
Democrats on the committee acknowledged concerns about fraud during the Jan. 7 hearing, but said the response should not punish communities unjustly, while pointing to what they said was hypocrisy among their GOP colleagues in taking fraud allegations seriously.
Walz has defended his handling of the crisis, saying his administration has "spent years cracking down on fraudsters" and has accused President Trump of "politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans."
On Dec. 31, A spokesperson for Walz said in response to the Jan. 7 hearing, without expanding, "We're always happy to work with Congress, though this committee has a track record of holding circus hearings that have nothing to do with the issue at hand."
Ellison's office said on Dec. 31, without evidence, that the attorney general and the state's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit have "prosecuted over 300 Medicaid fraud cases and won over $80 million in recoveries and restitution for the people of Minnesota."
Former U.S. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson in December said the total amount of fraud in Minnesota's Medicaid programs could be $9 billion or more. Walz called Thompson's statement "sensationalism" and said that it doesn't "help" the state tackle the problem that he vowed to fix.