Vice President JD Vance has formally referred Minnesota state officials—including Democratic Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison—to the Department of Justice for potential criminal investigation. The move follows a scathing report from the House Oversight Committee detailing widespread benefit fraud within the state.
The referral came after the Oversight panel sent a letter on Sunday to Vance, who heads the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, urging a deeper federal probe.
“I’ve referred these allegations to DOJ’s new Fraud Division for criminal investigation,” Vance announced Monday evening on X. “Minnesota state officials are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and [intimidated] whistleblowers, they must face justice.”
The House Oversight Committee launched its investigation after a viral video by YouTuber Nick Shirley highlighted how alleged sham childcare facilities were obtaining federal funds. Beyond childcare programs, Minnesota has faced other significant fraud issues, including the Feeding Our Future scandal, which resulted in the estimated loss of at least $300 million and sparked dozens of criminal charges. Additionally, a former federal prosecutor estimated last year that up to $9 billion distributed through Minnesota’s 14 Medicaid programs may have been lost to fraud since 2018—a figure that Walz and other state officials have disputed.
In the criminal referral to the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, Vance noted that the task force has uncovered billions in taxpayer fraud since its launch.
He stated: “If state officials in Minnesota or anywhere else in the country facilitated fraud or looked the other way while this theft was happening, if they actively prevented state and federal officials from stopping fraud … or if they intimidated and harassed whistleblowers … they must be held accountable.”
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, leveled direct blame at state leadership in the committee’s findings.
“The Committee’s investigation found that senior officials in the Minnesota state government … were aware of widespread fraud in federally funded social services programs for years, possessed the legal and procedural authority to stop payments and ban fraudulent providers, but repeatedly failed to act,” Comer wrote.
Vance clarified during a Monday appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” that the administration is not prejudging whether the named officials will face criminal charges. “We are not going to do what the Biden administration did and make judgments of the law before all the facts are in,” Vance said. “Clearly people weren’t taking fraud seriously. Whether it rises to the level of a criminal violation, we’re going to investigate it.”
In response to the escalating federal scrutiny, the Trump administration has already paused approximately $260 million in federal Medicaid funding designated for Minnesota.
Walz has previously defended his administration against the mounting federal actions, accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota.”
The fraud referral marks the second federal investigation targeting Minnesota leadership this year. The DOJ previously opened an ongoing probe into Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey regarding allegations that they hampered federal immigration enforcement efforts.
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