Vance refers Tim Walz, Minnesota attorney general to DOJ for criminal investigation over state's alleged fraud
Vice President J.D. Vance announced Monday that the administration has referred allegations against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Justice Department's fraud division for a potential criminal investigation.
The referral centers on claims of fraud within federally funded social services programs in Minnesota. Vance made the announcement during an interview on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime," stating he had taken the action before arriving at the network.
"We're certainly going to investigate this, Jesse, and I guess now I can make a bit of breaking news because I left the White House to come here to do this interview with you," Vance said. "And before I did, we actually referred this particular case to the Department of Justice for a full criminal investigation. We are not going to do what the Biden administration did and make judgments of the law before all the facts are in."
The referral comes after the House Oversight Committee released a report alleging that state officials in Minnesota, including Walz and Ellison, received warnings about potential fraud in social services programs but failed to take action. According to the report, officials hesitated partly due to concerns about litigation and fears of appearing discriminatory.
Vance described what he found most troubling about the allegations.
"You had people within Governor Walz's office who were saying, you know what? This looks like fraud. It looks like these Somalian illegal immigrants are doing something that's very shady, and then you had people who shut them down, who shut these whistleblowers down and said, you know, you're a racist or you're a xenophobe for asking questions about where taxpayer money is going," Vance said.
Vance later echoed those comments on social media platform X, writing: "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 vice president indicated the administration will pursue prosecution if the investigation uncovers criminal violations.
"What that means to me, Jesse, is that clearly people weren't taking fraud seriously. Whether it rises to the level of a criminal violation, we're gonna investigate it, and of course, if it does rise to that level, we're going to prosecute it. We have to," he said.
Vance has led the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud since February, when President Donald Trump announced what he described as a "war on fraud" during his State of the Union address. Earlier this year, Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced a pause in federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota.
Gov. Walz has pushed back against the federal actions, calling them retribution. On February 25, Walz said the administration was "weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota." He also stated at the time that the pause in Medicaid funding had "nothing to do with fraud."
The Justice Department will now determine whether to pursue a formal criminal investigation based on the referral.
