(NewsNation) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has pushed back against claims that he and his administration have not done enough to prevent or address accusations of social-aid fraud in Minnesota.
“We’ve spent years cracking down on fraud — referring cases to law enforcement, shutting down and auditing high-risk programs. Trump keeps letting fraudsters out of prison,” Walz wrote on social media. “To the national news just now paying attention, here’s what we’ve done to stop it.”
His post featured screenshots of his op-ed in the Minnesota Star Tribune, published Dec. 12, in which he framed the fraud allegations as his “responsibility to fix” and something that need not be “a partisan issue.”
“We have created additional checks and balances. We have hired investigators, auditors and law enforcement … we have learned from this — as we would hope any administration would,” he wrote in the op-ed.
Walz’s comments came hours before the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would pause all federal child care payments to Minnesota during the probe, a move praised by Vice President JD Vance as “one of the most important steps we can take” in the investigation.
In response to the announcement, Walz on social media accused the Trump administration of politicizing the investigation to “defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
“This is Trump’s long game. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue — but this has been his plan all along,” Walz said.
Minnesota fraud: Day care manager denies allegations
Tikki Brown, commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, acknowledged a viral video that questioned state-funded child care centers.
“While we have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously,” Brown said on Monday.
The video, posted by YouTuber Nick Shirley, featured licensed day care facilities that appeared empty or abandoned despite receiving millions in taxpayer funds.
The department pushed back on the video, acknowledging each facility mentioned had been visited at least once in the past six months as part of the state’s licensing process — and that children were present at previous unannounced visits.
The department confirmed to NewsNation that two centers pictured in Shirley’s video may have been closed at the time of filming.
Mako Child Care has been closed since 2022, and Quality Learning Center told the department on Dec. 19 that it “had closed or were closing,” though owners have since said they intend to keep the center open.
“There’s no fraud going on whatsoever,” said Ibrahim Ali, manager of Quality Learning Center. “Kids come to us, clients come to us, their parents come to us — they’re here daily, they leave on time, they come on time.”
Brown added that inspectors found children present during those visits, and that none of the prior reviews uncovered any fraud.
Federal agencies investigating the scandal
The video led federal agencies to arrive in the state to investigate suspected fraud, intensifying scrutiny of the state’s oversight of public assistance programs.
The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Small Business Administration all launched coordinated investigations into Minnesota’s fraud crisis, which has already resulted in 86 indictments and over $1 billion in losses tied to the Feeding Our Future scandal.
“The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “We will continue to follow the money and protect children, and this investigation very much remains ongoing.”
NewsNation’s Anna Kutz contributed to this report.