House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced the first congressional hearing into the Minnesota fraud scandal and invited Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and state Attorney General Keith Ellison to participate at a later date.
The first hearing, scheduled for Jan. 7, will include testimony from state Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson, and Marion Rarick, all of whom are Republicans. Comer has invited Walz and Ellison to testify on Feb. 10.
Comer’s announcement comes after the committee expanded its investigation, calling on state officials to testify in closed-door, transcribed interviews, while also requesting suspicious activity reports from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, along with a staff-level briefing from the Justice Department.
“In addition to conducting transcribed interviews with Minnesota state officials, the House Oversight Committee will hold hearings on fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs to expose failures, identify solutions, and deliver accountability,” Comer said in a statement. “Next week, we will hear from Minnesota state lawmakers who sounded the alarm on this fraud—and whose warnings were ignored by the Walz administration. This misconduct cannot be swept aside, and Congress will not stop until taxpayers get the answers and accountability they deserve.”
The alleged fraud, of which the majority of those charged are Somali immigrants, targeted multiple government social services programs in Minnesota, including one intended to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic under Walz’s leadership, with federal prosecutors saying billions of taxpayer dollars could have been stolen. Other programs in the state meant to support providers in assisting people at risk of homelessness, and another meant to provide therapy for autistic children, were also purportedly defrauded.
The committee launched its investigation into the matter earlier this month, as Comer called on Walz and Ellison to provide any documents in relation to the fraud scandal that occurred in the state.
The issue heated up last month when President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he was terminating temporary protected status for Somalis in the state. The president’s move came after a City Journal report alleged millions of Minnesota taxpayer dollars were stolen in the fraud scheme and were funneled to the Somali-based al Shabaab terrorist group. Minnesota has the highest Somali population of any state in the United States. The scandal has subsequently taken on a life of its own thanks to a video by YouTuber Nick Shirley, which went viral.
The president announced on Tuesday that he froze child care funds to Minnesota and demanded an audit of some day care centers.
“We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota,” Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill wrote on X.
Walz responded to O’Neill and pushed back, saying, “This is Trump’s long game. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
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Democrats, including the governor, have criticized the administration’s illegal immigration crackdown and Trump’s move to terminate the temporary protected status of Somalis living in Minnesota. Walz pledged that an audit will be conducted by late January to provide a better understanding, while adding that his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent further fraud.
Walz responded to Comer’s invite, telling Fox News, “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. While the Governor has been working to ensure fraudsters go to prison, the President has been selling pardons to let them out.”