Gov. Tim Walz bristled when a reporter challenged his claim that his administration has been busy “putting people in jail” for the massive fraud that has shaken Minnesota to the tune of a billion-plus dollars.
Walz — whose agencies failed to stop the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, which allowed mostly Somali defendants to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from a federally funded child-nutrition program administered by the Minnesota Department of Education until federal agents intervened — insisted the state deserves credit for the prosecutions.
During a Tuesday press conference, a reporter asked Walz why he would claim state leaders were “putting people in jail” when all the Feeding Our Future prosecutions so far have come from federal authorities.
“We’re the ones who brought it to them. We’re the ones who alerted the FBI,” Walz shot back.
He then launched into an extended explanation crediting state agencies for allegedly building the cases to hand over to federal prosecutors.
WATCH:
The federal prosecutor behind the Somali fraud convictions in Minnesota, Joe Thompson, said officials in Tim Walz’s administration feared being called racist if they scrutinized the fraudsters.
That didn’t stop Walz from lashing out at a reporter who said it was… pic.twitter.com/ajeykA2n1z
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) December 4, 2025
Earlier this week on NBC, Walz rejected the idea that state leaders failed to stop the Feeding Our Future scheme, saying he only takes “responsibility for putting people in jail” and arguing Minnesota is simply a state “that attracts criminals.”
In a viral post, an X account claiming to represent “over 480 current staff” at the Minnesota Department of Human Services said the opposite, accusing Walz of ignoring repeated internal warnings.
The account wrote that employees “let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud, but no — we got the opposite response.”
Indeed, a 2024 audit found that the Walz administration “failed to act on warning signs known to the department prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and prior to the start of the alleged fraud,” “did not effectively exercise its authority to hold Feeding Our Future accountable to program requirements,” and “was ill-prepared to respond to the issues it encountered with Feeding Our Future.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson previously told Alpha News he was alerted to the case by an FBI forensic accountant.
Carter echoes Walz, claims federal agents ‘are not adding value’
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter also delivered a similar message on CNN — dismissing federal fraud work and insisting the massive fraud was uncovered by state officials, not federal agents.
“Those fraud allegations were uncovered by local law enforcement and our state attorney general pressed charges,” Carter told CNN. “Our state’s law enforcement presence is what caught that, is what held those folks accountable,” he said, arguing that “we actually don’t need those federal agents.”
Carter stated that federal authorities “are not adding value in our community” and instead provide “a destabilizing force.”
St. Paul, MN Mayor Melvin Carter says his constituents "don't need" federal prosecutors to target Somali fraudsters (even after a judge just unilaterally let one free after a jury conviction for his $7M Medicaid billing scheme).
"Those federal agents are not adding value in our… pic.twitter.com/sghDRceLf3
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 3, 2025
Walz’s and Carter’s claims stand in contrast to the record: federal prosecutors — not the state — have filed all 78 indictments in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case.
All eyes on Minnesota
The eyes of the nation have been on Minnesota’s fraud crisis ever since a City Journal report detailed how stolen taxpayer funds “have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab.”
Two days later, President Donald Trump announced he was immediately terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota — home to the largest Somali population in the United States.
The Feeding Our Future case — along with fraud in state housing and autism programs — was the subject of a recent New York Times article explaining “how fraud swamped Minnesota’s social services system on Tim Walz’s watch.”
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
