The House Oversight Committee’s first hearing on the Minnesota fraud scandal was complete with lawmakers pointing fingers and exchanging barbs in heated exchanges.
This marked the first hearing into the committee’s investigation into the Minnesota fraud scandal, which was launched late last year.
The hearing featured a panel of witnesses, including state GOP Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson, Marion Rarick, and former Department of Justice special counsel Brendan Ballou.
The issue heated up in recent months when President Donald Trump announced in a TruthSocial post that he was terminating temporary protected status for Somalis in the state. The president’s move came after a City Journal report alleged millions of Minnesota taxpayer dollars were stolen in the fraud scheme and were funneled to the Somali-based al-Shabaab terrorist group.
The scandal has subsequently taken on a life of its own thanks to a video by YouTuber Nick Shirley, which went viral. The issue has opened heated debates between Republicans and Democrats both in and out of a hearing room, with Trump and some GOP lawmakers calling for investigations into other blue states, such as California, while some Democrats are accusing Republicans of engaging in racist behavior.
The committee has called on state officials to testify in closed-door, transcribed interviews, while requesting suspicious activity reports from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, along with a staff-level briefing from the Justice Department.
The committee also expects a second hearing on Feb. 10, at which Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has invited Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Attorney General Keith Ellison to testify.
GOP witnesses point fingers at Walz administration
Republicans in the hearing largely targeted Walz and his leadership, placing blame for the fraud occurring under his watch.
“If Governor Walz was serious about stopping fraud, he would have done it in 2019 when he took office,” Rarick, who has served in the state House since 2013, said in the hearing.
When Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) asked if the governor knew about the fraud, Robbins claimed Walz knew about it from the “very beginning” and “did nothing.”
Republican witnesses have claimed whistleblowers have been retaliated against, saying they were told they could be “demoted or reassigned or told that they could lose their job and then their house or their pension or their retirement benefits, or not qualify for unemployment benefits,” Robbins said in the hearing.
The alleged fraud, of which the majority of those charged are Somali immigrants, targeted multiple government social services programs in Minnesota under Walz’s leadership, with federal prosecutors saying billions of taxpayer dollars could have been stolen.
“From food nutrition assistance meant for children to fake autism centers and empty daycares – Tim Walz and Keith Ellison allowed fraudsters to take advantage of hardworking taxpayers at every turn. And now, Walz is running scared,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said Wednesday ahead of the hearing.
Emmer has been a staunch opponent of Walz for some time, whose antagonism for the governor heightened once Walz became the vice presidential running mate to former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Walz dropped his reelection bid earlier this week amid the fraud scandal.
“I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” Walz said during a press conference Monday, hours after releasing a statement. “Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences.”
GOP and Dems split on partisan lines
Wednesday’s hearing was a display of stark partisanship over the fraud, with Republicans pointing their questions at the Somali community and Walz’s administration. At the same time, Democrats focused on alleged fraud coming from the Trump administration.
“What we’re seeing today in the premise of this hearing is selective outrage about fraud,” Rep. James Wilkinshaw (D-VA) said.
“Maybe the Republican majority would be interested in holding a hearing on the $50,000 cash bribe that Border Czar Tom Homan received from FBI undercover agents in a Cava bag,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) said, sharing a slew of examples of “corruption” in the Trump administration.
Multiple members pointed to the plane gifted to Trump from Qatar, renaming the Kennedy Center, and the ballroom being put in place of the East Wing of the White House when talking about fraud in the administration.
Meanwhile, GOP members slammed the Walz administration for “covering up” the fraud and punishing whistleblowers when bringing concerns forward.
“So you have the Somali community who, on purpose, was petitioning the state of Minnesota to lower the standards, lower the standards to be able to make sure that fraud cannot be caught, is that correct?” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) asked during his allotted time.
Other Republican lawmakers asked questions about whether Somali Americans should speak English or be deported if they were involved in any part of the fraud scandal.
“What percentage of working age Somalians, who have been in the U.S. for 10 years or more, 10 years or more, how many of them speak English very well?” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) asked Ballou. “About half, the answer is about half. That seems pretty low, doesn’t it? Again, that doesn’t sound like something that makes our country stronger to me, and I think most Americans would agree with me on that.”
Minnesota has the highest Somali population of any state in the United States. Many Democrats, including Walz, have criticized the administration’s illegal immigration crackdown and Trump’s move to terminate the temporary protected status of Somalis living in Minnesota.
Sparks fly between lawmakers during questioning
The House Oversight Committee is one of the most well-known committees, known for both its theatrics and major investigations, which often garner significant media attention. This hearing was no different.
The first tit-for-tat unfolded between the chairman and Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), as both members yelled about how each respective party has “failed.”
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Next was a heated back-and-forth that involved a witness, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). Mace told Pressley she was “off the rails” after Pressley called the witnesses “hypocrites” for defending pardons made by Trump for a Minnesota Jan. 6 insurrectionist and former Rep. George Santos.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) asked the GOP witnesses if they agree that a post should be taken down from TruthSocial, posted by Trump, saying, “Did Tim Walz really have (D) Melissa Hortman assassinated???”
Hudson responded that he will “not engage in the silly condemnation” and continued on, as Frost began saying he will reclaim his time continuously. Hudson and Frost continued to speak over each other for over 20 seconds before Comer called for “order” and gave Frost a few extra seconds to close his statement.
Omar immigration records become point of tension
The Oversight Committee tabled a motion from Mace to subpoena Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to release her immigration records. Omar has been the target of many GOP attacks in recent years.
The motion from Mace was met with heavy debate from the committee before it voted, as members were unclear whether the panel had the authority to investigate sitting members of Congress. The motion was tabled after ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) withdrew a subpoena motion against Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), who has been accused of a myriad of allegations ranging from domestic abuse to soliciting prostitutes, and substituted it with the motion to table Mace’s.
“Tonight Democrats and Republicans teamed up to kill my motion to subpoena the immigration records of Ilhan Omar and her brother/husband,” Mace wrote on X. “DC did what it always does – protect its own. The American people spoke clearly in 2024 – they are tired of business as usual and backroom deals – they want REAL accountability.”
But this was not the first move to subpoena Omar’s immigration records.
“Today, I am calling on the House Intelligence Committee to subpoena and release the immigration records of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN). “This request was directed towards the Intelligence Committee because the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is not the correct jurisdiction.”
Omar is a frequent target of Republicans, as the president has referred to her as “garbage” and also said Somalis should “go back to where they came from.”
“America would be a better place if @IlhanMN were deported back to Somalia,” Gill wrote on X last year.
Omar came to the U.S. as a refugee before becoming a naturalized citizen in 2000, at the age of 17.
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“Born in Somalia, Rep. Omar and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight,” her website reads. “The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in the 1990s. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Omar’s office for comment.
