{"id":2150,"date":"2026-06-09T04:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2026-06-09T04:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:34:58","slug":"vance-recommends-doj-criminal-investigation-into-tim-walz-and-minnesota-ag-over-states-fraud-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2150","title":{"rendered":"Vance recommends DOJ criminal investigation into Tim Walz and Minnesota AG over state\u2019s fraud scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div> <div>\n<button>\n<strong>\n<span><svg>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n<span>Summary<\/span>\n<\/strong>\n<span><svg><\/svg>\n<\/span>\n<span><svg><\/svg>\n<\/span>\n<\/button>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Vice President JD Vance has recommended to the justice Department a criminal investigation into Minnesota state officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.<\/li>\n<li>The referral stems from a House Oversight Committee report alleging state officials delayed action on fraud warnings in social services programs.<\/li>\n<li>CNN has reached out to Walz and Ellison for comment on the allegations and the criminal referral.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<span>AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            Vice President JD Vance, who leads the White House anti-fraud task force, has referred allegations of complicity surrounding fraud in Minnesota, including against Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation.\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2146\">How many times has Trump claimed an Iran deal is around the corner?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            The criminal referral stems from a  on an ongoing investigation that alleges \u201cfraud warnings were elevated to senior levels of the Minnesota state government, meaningful corrective action was delayed or avoided, and payments continued long after credible red flags emerged.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Detailing the report in  to Vance on Sunday, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer encouraged the vice president\u2019s task force \u201cto direct the appropriate executive branch agencies to conduct a thorough review of all of Minnesota\u2019s social services program integrity measures, oversight processes, reimbursements, and enrollment from 2019 to the present.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Vance posted on X Monday night that he\u2019d referred the allegations against top state officials to the Justice Department\u2019s fraud division, which is run by Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cMinnesota 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,\u201d Vance said on X.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The fraud allegations put intense pressure on Walz, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee who was running for a third term as governor. Although he denied allegations by Republicans that his administration ignored financial abuse, Walz announced in January he was dropping his reelection campaign.\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2142\">Trump formally nominates his former personal lawyer Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<header>\n<span>\n      Related article\n    <\/span>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 04: (L-R) Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison are sworn in as they testify during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in the U.S. Capitol Building on March 04, 2026 in Washington, DC.\" class=\"wp-image-2149\" height=\"144\" src=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7d02875e6134b2573a76726f0e5435c9.jpg\" width=\"256\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<span>WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; MARCH 04: (L-R) Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison are sworn in as they testify during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in the U.S. Capitol Building on March 04, 2026 in Washington, DC.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<figcaption>Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n<span>House Republicans grill Walz and Ellison over Minnesota\u2019s welfare fraud scandal<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div>7  min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            CNN has reached out to Walz and Ellison\u2019s office for comment on the criminal referral and for any response to the House Oversight Committee report.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Fraud allegations in Minnesota shifted back into the national spotlight late last year, when a 23-year-old conservative content creator claimed with little evidence on YouTube that Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota were fraudulently taking funding meant to provide childcare for low-income families. The video, which racked up millions of views, was boosted by Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and tech billionaire Elon Musk.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The allegations prompted a fresh gush of fury and vitriol from the Trump administration and state GOP leaders, who demanded a crackdown on the spending of taxpayer dollars for social services they said were never provided.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            In an interview with Fox News last month, Vance, who has been dubbed the administration\u2019s \u201cfraud czar,\u201d hinted that criminal referrals may be coming for top state officials, including in California, Minnesota and other states.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cWhen I hear about a report that says to the governor, here\u2019s all this fraud, and he doesn\u2019t do anything about it. I ask myself, was anybody engaged in criminal wrongdoing? Was anybody\u2019s office engaged in criminal wrongdoing? Again, I\u2019m not going to say yes, but I am going to promise the American people we\u2019re going to look into that stuff, we\u2019re going to investigate it, and we\u2019re going to take it seriously, because if there was criminal wrongdoing, then people ought to go to prison for it,\u201d Vance told Kaleigh McEnany at the time.\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2140\">New image of the Crystal Ball Nebula captures the \u2018spectacular\u2019 throes of a dying star<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vice President JD Vance, who leads the White House anti-fraud task force, has referred allegations of complicity surrounding fraud in Minnesota, including against Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Vance recommends DOJ criminal investigation into Tim Walz and Minnesota AG over state\u2019s fraud scandal - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2150\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vance recommends DOJ criminal investigation into Tim Walz and Minnesota AG over state\u2019s fraud scandal - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vice President JD Vance, who leads the White House anti-fraud task force, has referred allegations of complicity surrounding fraud in Minnesota, including against Democratic Gov. 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