After facing retaliation, Minnesota fraud whistleblower welcomes federal investigation

Vice President JD Vance is now calling on Assistant U.S. Attorney General Colin McDonald to investigate if top Minnesota state officials broke the law in the botched response to the state's fraud crisis. 

It comes after the release of a blistering, 200-plus-page report from a Republican-led U.S. House committee that claims Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and other senior officials failed to act. 

Chief among the allegations is that employees "have faced retaliation for raising concerns." Faye Bernstein, an employee with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, says she was initially ignored when she caught what she calls red flags back in 2019. 

"In the normal course of work, we would come across things that we would call fraud," Bernstein said.

But it then led to a human resources investigation and loss of responsibilities after she persistently brought up her concerns. 

The committee's report refers to at least 30 whistleblowers who say they felt threatened — a possible focus for the U.S. Department of Justice's prosecutors to explore criminal or civil charges against Minnesota leadership. 

Walz pushed back against claims during a Capitol Hill hearing in March. His spokesperson calls the GOP-dominated committee report a "joke." And Ellison calls the allegations "unfounded," describing Vance's referral as "a political stunt."

Bernstein says she's not sure what a criminal investigation would uncover. 

"It bothers me that the group of anonymous whistleblowers are treated so poorly," Bernstein said. "I hope in my case it was just incompetence. I really hope that."

Walz and Ellison are the headline, but there are a number of senior DHS officials interviewed and named throughout that report, so it's unclear what the DOJ would try to zero in on.

It'll be a waiting game to see if anyone is indicted, as Ellison says his team continues to work with the feds to prosecute fraudsters.