Vice President JD Vance announced Monday that he is referring Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison — both Democrats — to the Justice Department for a criminal fraud investigation involving social services programs.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.“Minnesota state officials are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimated whistleblowers, they must face justice,” Vance wrote on X, adding that his referral was prompted by a letter and a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.The committee’s report, published Monday, alleged that Minnesota state officials, including Walz and Ellison, were “aware of widespread taxpayer fraud in federally funded social programs for years” and did not take steps to stop it.Walz’s and Ellison’s offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday night on the criminal referral, but their spokespeople were dismissive of the GOP report in statements to other news outlets.The committee also wrote a letter Sunday urging Vance, in his capacity as head of the White House’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, to review Minnesota’s social services programs.Vance was named head of the task force in February after President Donald Trump announced a “war on fraud” in his State of the Union address.
Shortly after that announcement, Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said they were pausing federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota.Walz said at the time that the move had “nothing to do with fraud,” calling it a “campaign of retribution.”“Trump is weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota,” Walz said Feb.25 on X.Minnesota came under federal scrutiny earlier in Trump’s second term over allegations of fraud involving daycare centers.
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