Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ripped Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for “gaslighting the American people” about allegations of widespread fraud from the Minnesota Somali community.
After reports surfaced of a widespread fraud scheme in Minnesota allegedly largely orchestrated by Somali asylum-seekers, President Donald Trump terminated temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota. Bessent followed Trump’s announcement with an announcement of his own that the Treasury Department would investigate allegations that the money diverted in the fraud scheme was funneled to the Somali terrorist organization al Shabaab.
Bessent told CBS News‘s Margaret Brennan on Sunday that the department started the investigation last week and that it is ongoing. “We’ll see where it goes, but I can tell you that it’s terrible,” Bessent said. He criticized Omar for what he said was “downplaying” the scheme and said several of the alleged fraudsters also donated to her campaign, referring to recent reports on the matter.
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“Rep. Omar tried to downplay it. Said, ‘Oh, it was very tough to know how this money should be used.’ She was gaslighting the American people,” Bessent said.
Omar told NPR on Thursday that she is “grateful” that the fraudsters are being held accountable and that “they are going to jail for a really long time.” She also warned against scapegoating the entire Somali American community because of the actions of the alleged fraudsters in the case.
“These are people who are being prosecuted, and it is not fair to scapegoat the whole Somali community of whom have been law-abiding and grateful people that have chosen to make Minnesota their home,” Omar said.
Omar also appeared on Face the Nation after Bessent. When Brennan asked Omar to respond to Bessent’s comments that “individuals who committed this fraud” donated to her campaign, she said she sent the money back.
“I don’t think the secretary himself understands what he’s referring to. We obviously had people who were able to donate to our campaign that were involved. We sent that money back a couple years ago, and actually, I was one of the first members of Congress to send a letter to the secretary of [agriculture]. asking them to look into what I thought was a reprehensible fraud that was occurring within the program,” Omar said.
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Omar noted that Somalis within her community are Minnesota taxpayers and that “we also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen.”
“It is something that we have to continue to investigate. We have to continue to ask those questions,” Omar said.