Tim Walz facing probes from Treasury Department, House committee over $1B food aid fraud

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA: The Treasury Department and a House committee launched investigations into Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's handling of a $1 billion fraud involving Somali immigrants. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer informed The New York Post that his panel "will conduct a thorough investigation into Governor Walz’s failure to safeguard taxpayer dollars."

Trump administration claims money might have been funneled to Al-Shabaab

James Comer told the outlet, "Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was warned about massive fraud in a pandemic food-aid program for children, yet he failed to act. Instead, whistleblowers who raised concerns faced retaliation."

"Because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals — including Somali te**orists — stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered," he added. 

Interestingly, Comer can issue subpoenas and refer alleged crimes to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution as the chairman of the GOP-led panel. The Justice Department has so far convicted 59 fraudsters in the scheme.

On Monday, December 1, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on X that he had instructed his investigators to find out how "the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz" allowed tax dollars to be funneled to Al-Shabaab.

The revelations about the $1 billion fraud for a food relief program are new, and so is the claim that some of the money flowed back to the Somali militant organization.

However, House Republicans have been onto the Minnesota governor over the leaky aid programs for months.

In 2024, Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee issued a subpoena to Walz for records. However, it’s unclear what information his office provided.

The probe comes after the prosecutions of 78 individuals, primarily from Somalia, who allegedly took the taxpayers’ money as part of the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, as per the feds.

Tim Walz says 'there’s a big difference between fraud and corruption'

Tim Walz appeared on NBC News' 'Meet the Press' on Sunday, November 30 and boasted that he took "responsibility for putting people in jail" who were connected to the fraud, while saying that "there’s a big difference between fraud and corruption".

Taking a jab at President Donald Trump, he said, "And corruption is something he knows about", adding, "Donald Trump: Deflect, demonize, come up with no solutions. He’s not going to help fix anything on fraud."

"My God, there’s a big difference between fraud and corruption. And corruption is something he knows about," Walz remarked.

Walz, who is currently running for a third term in office, told the Minnesota Reformer that he was aware of suspicious activity by the nonprofit as early as November 2020. 

Interestingly, Minnesota’s Department of Education first moved to stop payments to Feeding Our Future during that time, but the Minnesota governor let the payments flow again after Feeding Our Future sued the department for alleged racial discrimination.