Washington State AG Warns Citizen Journalists to Stop Investigating Somali Daycares or Face Potential Hate Crime

American Greatness ^ | 31 Dec, 2025 | Debra Heine

[MtnClimber]

The Washington state attorney general released a statement on X Tuesday evening warning independent journalists to stop investigating fraudulent Somali daycare centers or they could be charged with a hate crime.

“My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking,” State AG Nick Brown stated. “We are in touch with the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families regarding the claims being pushed online and the harassment reported by daycare providers. Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”

Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil rights, issued a warning of her own in reaction to the Washington state AG’s post.

“ANY state official who chills or threatens to chill a journalist’s 1A rights will have some ‘splainin to do,” she wrote on X, Wednesday morning. “[The DOJ Civil Rights Division] takes potential violations of 18 USC § 242 seriously!” Dhillon added.

This statute, known as the Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law, makes it a crime for any person acting under the pretense of law to willfully deprive another individual of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

The clash of the AGs came after Youtuber Nick Shirley exposed about a dozen Somali-owned, state-funded childcare facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that appeared to be completely deserted.

Shirley produced a 42-minute video, which has been viewed over 131 million times on X since it was posted on December 26, alleging that Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.) “knew about the fraud but never reported it.”

Inspired by Shirley’s bombshell report, citizen journalists in multiple states with large Somali populations have launched their own investigations in recent days.

In the Kent, Washington area Tuesday, YouTuber Chris Sims, a self-described “gonzo journalist,” visited seven suspicious Somali childcare sites and reported that they were “very unhappy” to see him.

Sims posted a video of him approaching a private home listed as a childcare facility that appeared to be not as advertised.

“There was no sign of kids or being a Daycare facility,” Sims wrote. “I was told by a few they weren’t Daycares despite receiving tax payer dollars. One yelled ‘Call the police’ behind the door.”

On Monday, independent journalists Jonathan Choe and Cam Higby visited an alleged Somali daycare facility in Seattle that receives hundreds of thousands in taxpayers funds and the person who answered the door said there was no daycare there in the past or present.

Higby said “Dhagash Childcare” has received over $210,000 just this year alone.

Another listed childcare facility, a house in a residential neighborhood in Kent, Washington, has received over $863,000 since 2023, according to Higby.

“Residents say there IS NO DAYCARE HERE,” the journalist said.

Another reporter reporting on potential fraud in the Rainier Vista neighborhood of Seattle on December 29th, faced hostile reactions from the Somali residents, who called the police on him.

In his statement, the Washington State AG encouraged members of the Somali community “experiencing threats or harassment” to call the police or his office’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline or report it to the state’s hate crime website.

Addressing the independent journalists, Brown added: “If you think fraud is happening, there are appropriate measures to report and investigate. Go to DCYF’s website to learn more. And where fraud is substantiated and verified by law enforcement and regulatory agencies, people should be held accountable.”

The Post Millennial’s Andy Ngo responded to Brown’s threat on X, saying: “It is the duty of journalists to visit taxpayer-funded nonprofits and businesses to investigate where you have failed. The journalists have documented their visits on camera and there is no harassing or threatening behavior. You are trying to threaten journalists by telling people to call police with false allegations of a hate crime.”

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TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: callingrico; corruption; criminalconspiracy; demkickbacks; democratcorruption

[MtnClimber]

Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown has been accused of colluding with Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie on its federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, raising ethics concerns.

Emails obtained by The Center Square revealed that Brown's Office gave the law firm advice on when and where to file the lawsuit against the Trump administration. Additionally, Brown directly collaborated with the law firm on an amicus brief filed in support of Perkins Coie, which had its security clearances and federal contracts revoked by President Trump via executive order.

[metmom]

We are so screwed.

If democrats ever get in control again, kiss this country good bye for good.

[Vision]

Investigate him now.

[metmom]

This is ridiculous.

What somali women work outside the home that day care is needed by them?

What somali MEN work outside the home?

[Hyman Roth]

Sounds Facist.

[yesthatjallen]

"Working on a story in the Rainier Vista neighborhood of Seattle, WA on December 29th, 2025 regarding possible childcare fraud issues. The reporting showed serious issues in the Seattle Housing Authority immigrant neighborhood that led to a serious confrontation with some local Somali residents."

Childcare Fraud Questions Emerge After Seattle Neighborhood Confrontation (40 mins)

[PGalt]

HOORAY citizen journalists Shirley, Sims, Choe and Higby.

[Rlsau1]

It appears somewhat evident from what Trump’s administration has uncovered so far that the Democrat Party has been funded to a great degree by taxpayer money looted from the Treasury by massive fraud. The Republicans aren’t blameless either as they have allowed it to continue and grow through their own fecklessness.

[cgbg]

Yup—the Democrats have given up on pretending to believe all the “social contract” stuff.

They are now in blatant criminal gang mode.

[Carry_Okie]

Washington State AG Warns Citizen Journalists to Stop Investigating Somali Daycares or Face Potential Hate Crime,

Bring it idiot.

[high info voter]

What a pile of BS that statement is!

[aklurker]

With the number of Somalis on welfare, how many of them actually work so that they would even need daycare?

[Freedom4US]

I wouldn’t trust that MFer just lookin’ at him. ClownWorld

[alloysteel]

At what point does genuine concern stop and harassment (criminal level hate) begin?

Apparently the bar is being set lower and lower, as it was in Roman Empire times, when it was a crime to even raise your eyes and look at Caesar.

The Democrat Socialists are fond of reminding us that “Nobody is above the law”, but they continue to make exceptions for themselves and those they presume to place in the “protected classes”.

No white conservative Christians may apply. But Islamic Jihadists, they are right up at the head of the list.

[bert]

Washington is no longer America.

The state resigned from the Union

[PGalt]

“Such as it is, the press has become the greatest power in the Western World. More powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would like to ask, by whom has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

You can’t hate them enough.

[BradyLS]

Washington Attorney General more interested in protecting grifters than pursuing them.

[Political Junkie Too]

There is more Somali day care capacity in Washington state than there are Somalis.

-PJ

[PTBAA]

How to say I’m on the take without saying I’m on the take.