America's Talking - Republicans go on attack in hearing over $9 billion of social services fraud

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

(The Center Square) – Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the state attorney general were either “complicit” in the now-estimated $9 billion of social services fraud that has taken place in the state in recent years or “asleep at the wheel,” according to Republican Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. “How could they allow this massive fraud to go on for years? This is why we're here today. We must expose this theft of taxpayer dollars and hold everybody accountable who let it happen,” Comer said. Comer chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which on Wednesday held the first of at least two scheduled hearings looking into the fraud that has occurred in Minnesota and how to respond. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAelib, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. The Mass was welfare fraud under investigation in Minnesota has forced Governor Tim Walz to withdraw his reelection bid in the state as Congress is holding hearings investigating the scandal. On the same day, a U.S. House committee heard from several witnesses who testified that members of the Walls administration suppressed fraud reports retaliated against whistleblowers and changed protocols to mass criminal behavior. Joining me to discuss this is reporter Morgan Sweeney with our Washington, D.C. Bureau. Morgan, let's start with the congressional hearing that you covered this week.

There were some pretty significant allegations made at that hearing. Tell us about them. Yes, there were. It was pretty surprising. So the committee had called three members of Minnesota state legislature to testify. And all three of the, those people are on a fraud prevention committee that was formed about a year ago. And they've been looking into a lot of these cases that have been brought up in this now estimated, I think it's $9 billion, over $9 billion of social services fraud in Minnesota. And so one of them in particular talked about the whistleblowers that they've spoken to and what some of their experiences have been. There's actually an account on X now called Minnesota's staff fraud reporting commentary,

and it was started by about 480. They said current and former employees of Minnesota's Department of Human Services, who have found instances of, you know, things that don't add up correctly and wanted to do something about it. So these communities, these communities, members have spoken with these people. And they've heard some pretty shocking stories. So one of the stories that this committee member, her name is Marion Rarick, that she mentioned was one that was actually reported in Newsweek, but it was about a compliance specialist who had worked for the state.

And she had brought up an instance of sloppy, contracting practices. And it wasn't even technically fraud, but it was just they were out of compliance. And it ended up being terrible for her. She ended up being involuntarily transferred to another state agency and escorted out of the building. And so now she said if people ask her, if they should report, you know, similar things. She always tells them no, just because of the stuff that she suffered as a result of being honest. And then they said, Rerick said in our face-to-face meetings

with a group of whistleblowers, they revealed that retaliation now includes threats of being fired with cause, which means you don't get unemployment insurance in Minnesota, being blacklisted from all state agencies. She even said there was a veiled threat of the use of military intelligence against some of these people. So it's just like truly. shocking and something I don't think you'd expect to hear in the U.S., but other whistleblowers have

said that they've found pictures of their homes and their cars and their personnel files, that they've been asked where their children go to school and where their kids' bus stops are. So just very strange things. And then they also... mentioned that Minnesota's current lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, she's publicly disparaged some of these whistleblowers and said some negative things about them, kind of making fun of them. And then she also, she served on the state legislature before becoming lieutenant governor. And she was actually on a committee that held hearings of child care fraud, which is, you know,

one of these biggest examples of the fraud that's been uncovered lately. And so it's kind of surprising that she would publicly respond that way. And then there's also some other examples of ways that the department responded. There was an initial whistleblower report in 2019 about the state-sponsored child care services that unveiled some pretty huge things. And at that time, the state's DHS, they shut down this office of inspector general and told them that they could no longer do criminal investigations and kind of changed how they were handling all of those things. They went from calling occasions of fraud. They started referring to them as overbilling. And then they created a committee

that would look into these cases of overbilling and decide whether the state would even attempt to recoup funds. So I could go on. There's evidence of forms being backdated, after audits have been performed, all kinds of things. And there have been widespread calls, at least among Republicans for Walls to step down. Immediately something that he has said he will not do. He did, however, say he was ending his reelection campaign early. Congress has invited Walls to testify at a second hearing. Do you expect him to join?

I'm not sure. I mean, like you said, he dropped his bid for re-election, so I guess we'll have to see. but yeah, they invited him and his attorney general to testify. We'll see if that happens. And just briefly to close out, Morgan, this hearing, which was an explosive hearing, happened on the same day that an immigration enforcement officer shot and killed a woman who the Trump administration says was trying to block immigration enforcement.

efforts and who ran her car into one of the agents on the ground. Obviously, that's been a huge national story. Minnesota has been in the spotlight these last few weeks, and that just adds to the tensions there. Morgan, thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with all of these stories and more at thecenter square.com.