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Posted on 06/11/2026 8:08:51 AM PDT by Red Badger
Senior Minnesota state officials allegedly hired outside investigators to silence whistleblowers in an attempt to cover up widespread state social services fraud, a House committee report released Monday found.
A 200-page staff report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s state administration intimidated and retaliated against state employees who raised concerns about fraud, soliciting private investigators to reveal employees’ personal details.
The report, titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion,” exposed that senior state officials, as high as allegedly Gov. Walz, were aware of widespread fraud for years and neglected to respond to reports. (RELATED: California Faces Election Fraud Investigations Amid Major Vote Count Delays)
A Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) official who contacted the FBI told federal investigators she was pressured “at every turn” by her superiors to stop raising fraud concerns and was “hand slapped” when she continued to investigate, according to the report.
The MDE official also reported that she was warned by state administrators to “stop digging into things” as it would appear she was “targeting certain groups.”
Dozens of other whistleblowers reported they were told to stay silent about fraud concerns by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) because they would be labeled “racist” or “Islamophobic.” DHS also told state employees that raising fraud concerns would harm the state, the report said.
Whistleblowers reported that DHS conducted “arbitrary investigations” to photograph their cars and houses, monitored their phones and computers, and asked employees where their kids attended school.
Here’s an insider tip on how DHS operates. If you detect fraud, 2 things could happen: 1. You will have arbitrary investigations started on you until you quit. DHS investigators will photograph your car, house, monitor your phone and computer and ask which school your kids go to.…
— Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary (@Minnesota_DHS) September 18, 2025
Then-Temporary Commissioner Shireen Gandhi at DHS confirmed in a testimony copied in the report that the state department used outside entities to conduct these investigations of employees, but could not confirm whether independent law firms were used.
Gandhi also confirmed in her testimony that DHS management would regularly meet and “check-in” on employees who had reported fraud concerns. Gandhi continued to conduct these check-ins on DHS whistleblower Faye Bernstein “a year or two” after her investigatory leave.
Bernstein alleged Gandhi “shamed” her in a meeting after she raised concerns about fraud and “excluded [her] from further meetings on the topic.”
Whistleblowers also alleged that former state Commissioner Jodi Harpstead held a division-wide meeting and told attendees that “employees would be punished if they reported concerns about fraud in DHS program,” according to the report.
DHS employee Emmanuel Nwala told colleagues that he “did intelligence research with in the Army” and appears to have threatened to provide IP addresses to former colleagues in order to find the locations of whistleblowers’ email addresses, an email obtained through a public data request showed.
This DHS “manager” has been promoted to a “leadership” role. Emmanuel Nwala has threatened employees with military surveillance & made numerous staff uncomfortable with his intimidation & behavior. See the email that was obtained through a PUBLIC DATA REQUEST. #Menace #Disgusting pic.twitter.com/Z6yPGVZfyd
— Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary (@Minnesota_DHS) November 10, 2023
Gov. Walz testified he was unaware of the email, but agreed it would be intimidation to confront employees with their personal information, according to an interview transcript located in the report. (RELATED: SCOOP: Tim Walz Accused Of Stonewalling Key Probe As Somali Fraud Sweeps His State)
The report also alleged that DHS de-anonymized an internal fraud hotline for employees in an attempt to intimidate fraud reporters. After whistleblowers later created an anonymous external email to report fraud, DHS blocked the email address. Whistleblowers reported that their fraud hotline tips were sent to Human Resources (HR) and used against them.
The hotline was originally anonymous, but was de-anonymized under Gandhi’s tenure as Deputy Commissioner of HR. Gov. Walz appointed Gandhi as Commissioner of DHS in Feb. 2026, but removed her in May before her confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to fraud allegations, local KSTP news reported.
MDE told the Daily Caller, “We care deeply about protecting Medicaid services for people who need them and stopping criminals stealing taxpayer dollars. Minnesota has taken concrete, aggressive action to tighten oversight of Medicaid — changing practices and policies that were in place for decades.”
Republican Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky officially launched a congressional investigation into alleged Minnesota fraud on December 3, 2025.
Rep. Comer reported to Vice President J.D. Vance Sunday that the committee estimates around $300 million of Minnesota’s federal child nutrition funds and around $9 billion Medicaid-related funds were “lost or at serious risk.”
According to the committee’s news release, the House of Representatives will consider ten Oversight Committee bills this week aimed at “protecting taxpayer funds and combating rampant fraud and improper payments in federal programs.” The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates between $233 billion and $521 billion is lost annually due to fraud.
Minnesota’s DHS did not respond immediately to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
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sure sounds like Criminal Negligence on a mass scale.
Now find out how much of that money ended up in the pockets of Walz and others.
Are there enough ‘clean’ folk left in government to research, arrest, and jail, all the bad guys.
Looking like the evil is everywhere. Corruption will never be brought into check.
I guess this is one of the reasons Walz ain’t running again.
Sounds like a punishable crime that won’t be punished. Different story if this were from a GOP politician’s staff.
Obstruction of Justice added to RICO, fraud charges.
Yeah, so obviously he knew...
I hope the DOJ goes after him the same way Biden’s DOJ relentlessly went after the J-6ers.
Hope Newsom is next.
Related from Minnesota-based Powerline Blog today (John Hinderaker)...
The four Republican House members from Minnesota, Tom Emmer, Pete Stauber, Michelle Fischbach and Brad Finstad, have called on Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to resign in the wake of the House Oversight Committee’s scathing report on fraud in Minnesota, which was released on Monday and cited work by American Experiment eight times. Emmer issued a press release that says in part:Hinderaker concludes "Whether the DOJ’s investigation will result in criminal charges is doubtful. But Walz’s career is over, and Ellison will almost certainly lose his campaign for a third term in November."Today, Congressman Tom Emmer (MN-06) joined Congressman Pete Stauber (MN-08), Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach (MN-07), and Congressman Brad Finstad (MN-01) in calling on Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to resign from office following the recent report issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, highlighting their systematic failure to safeguard taxpayer dollars.Earlier today, the four Representatives also sent a letter to Walz and Ellison demanding their resignations...“If these allegations are true, Tim Walz and Keith Ellison should leave office in handcuffs. At the very least, they should resign from office in disgrace. Public officials need to be held accountable for allowing billions of taxpayer dollars to be stolen from Minnesotan and American taxpayers. We’ve had enough,” said Congressman Tom Emmer.
Will we EVER see true justice meted out to the multitudes of crooks, charlatans, mountebanks, scoundrels and insurrectionists in government?
Lock him up.
MN seems to just be an extreme case of the bureaucratic SWAMP that plagues many state and federal agencies. In 2025 long before MN became national news, Trump fired many IG Inspector Generals because they were not doing their job...they did not want to make waves.
Even now, Republicans make waves in Democrat MN and CA. But few seem to want to make waves with the Deloittes of the welfare program. Few want to admit that white collar IT workers yield to the sinful side of their human nature.
Sounds criminal, perhaps we don’t need a committee, we need DOJ prosecutions.
From the feel of it, this is why Walz was picked for VP.
He setup Somali operations outside of MN to use as a secret slush fund into the DNC.
The DNC wanted this to continue.
Bernie Sanders’s staff is the key architect of this abomination.
In New York State, the Comptroller is elected. In Minnesota, she was appointed by Walz. Shouldn’t she face some pointed questions. Obviously, she was a willfully neglegent watchdog, doing Walz’ nefarious bidding.
Not ‘Negligence’, RICO.................
What a bunch of POS’s!
This would have been a real problem if a Republican had done it.
DOJ should Federally indict all of the losers, including Tampon Timmy. That would scare the bejeezus out of the rest of the other blue states’ commie apparatchiks, they’ll identify themselves, then indict them too.
This guy is commie agent
This is not negligence or ignorance. This is grand conspiracy.
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