SouthernWorldwide.com – A comprehensive report released by the Republican majority of the House Oversight Committee has accused Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of significant failures in addressing the state’s extensive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal. The 205-page report, published on Monday, alleges that Ellison repeatedly contradicted public statements regarding the scandal, which has drawn national attention to Minnesota.
The scandal, involving allegations that members of Minnesota’s Somali community exploited social services to funnel millions to unqualified recipients, including potential terror groups, has spurred numerous investigations. The report details instances suggesting that both Ellison and Governor Tim Walz were aware of fraud concerns earlier than they publicly admitted.
According to the committee, the governor and the attorney general were informed of fraud within the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) as early as April 2020. This contradicts their public claims made to the media.
Furthermore, the report states that the governor and attorney general were aware of fraud in the Child Care Assistance Program and the Non-Emergency Medical Transportation program by the spring of 2019. They also became aware of fraud in 13 additional high-risk Medicaid programs at various times during their tenure but allegedly failed to take action.
Interviews with officials from education, human services, and the executive office led investigators to conclude that Ellison had knowledge of fraud concerns years before they became public. These interviews linked Ellison’s awareness of “high-risk Medicaid programs” fraud as early as 2019 to over $300 million in Feeding Our Future fraud and an estimated up to $9 billion in fraud related to high-risk Medicaid programs.
The committee expressed its inability to definitively determine whether Ellison’s alleged failure to protect Minnesota taxpayers stemmed from “incompetence, willful blindness, or worse.”
Ellison’s office strongly refuted the Republicans’ findings, characterizing the report as “riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations in order to politicize the issue of fraud.”
One specific instance cited by the committee involved a September 2022 press release from Ellison that allegedly misrepresented the timeline of his office’s awareness of impropriety by Feeding Our Future (FOF) and a legal threat from the nonprofit against the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).
Ellison claimed he intervened in the “Fall of 2020” to support MDE against FOF’s legal threat. However, the committee found that MDE had been confronted by FOF in April 2020, indicating months of delay by Democrats.
Daron Korte, MDE Assistant Commissioner, testified that his agency did not declare a “serious deficiency” in FOF’s compliance with federal program rules and issue a stop-pay order until the following year. Korte noted that MDE had the authority to take these actions earlier but hesitated due to fear of litigation.
The report concluded that Ellison and Walz demonstrated knowledge of alleged fraud much earlier than they admitted or announced.
The report stated that both officials “claimed to know very little about the widespread fraud occurring in Minnesota until long after potentially billions of dollars had gone out the door, and believed that the child care fraud that predated the beginning of their terms in 2019 had been resolved by the time they took office.”
The committee accused Ellison of deliberately delaying oversight of FOF and other concerns, suggesting he waited for the federal government to handle the issue.
Despite his knowledge of the situation in spring 2020, the report noted that his “corrective actions did not come until after news of the FBI’s pandemic-fraud investigation emerged two years later.”
During the trial of FOF leader Aimee Bock, Exhibit 710 was presented, which included a nearly hour-long recording of AG Ellison meeting with several defendants in 2021. These defendants included Salim Said, the owner of a now-defunct Somali restaurant convicted of 20 felonies, and Shakur Abdinur Abdisalam, who pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government of millions.
According to the report, Ellison initially told a reporter he was prepared to meet with Mohamed Omar, an Imam, and expressed surprise at the presence of other attendees. However, the committee contended this account contradicted what Ellison told Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., during a hearing, where he described the group as seeking solutions to “difficulties with the bureaucracy.”
Ellison told Luna that he investigated their claims and then worked with federal authorities to prosecute suspects, resulting in 57 convictions. He stated, “They were not what they claimed to be.”
The report found that some individuals at the meeting had pledged “the Somali community’s political and financial support to Ellison” if he intervened in their claims of racial profiling or discrimination by government agencies. Ellison reportedly responded that he would help “fight these people.”
When Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., questioned Governor Walz about this exchange during a hearing, the governor stated it was the first time he had heard of it and declined to “speculate” on it.
The committee further found that Ellison, when asked about his prosecutorial authority, stated he has jurisdiction over Medicaid fraud probes but that other criminal cases must be referred by county attorneys. The panel argued this was an omission from prior testimony before the Senate, where Ellison had indicated that non-Medicaid criminal cases could also be referred by the governor’s office.
In response, Ellison’s office, through spokesperson Brian Evans, stated, “The record is clear that Attorney General Ellison fought fraud wherever possible and as soon as he was able to.”
Evans added that in areas where Ellison has the authority to file criminal charges, he has convicted over 340 Medicaid fraudsters, and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is recognized as one of the nation’s most effective.
Regarding jurisdictional divisions, Evans explained that when Ellison lacked proper jurisdiction, he defended Minnesota from frivolous litigation by those attempting to conceal their schemes. Ellison’s office recently introduced legislation to expand his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, noting that the House report does not adequately differentiate between the authorities of the AG’s office and other agencies.
Ellison’s office maintains they are solely empowered to prosecute Medicaid fraud, while other social services fraud falls under the purview of counties or federal authorities.
The House report highlighted that both Walz and Ellison were given an opportunity to explain their actions during a March 2026 hearing but did not provide what the committee deemed sufficient answers.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., expressed alarm over the investigation’s findings and sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance, in his capacity as chair of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, urging a thorough review of Minnesota’s social services programs.
