'Incompetence or dereliction': Minnesota lawmaker rips Tim Walz as state fraud losses mount

To Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., the fraud schemes coming from his state are so numerous and so costly that he believes they represent either "incompetence or dereliction of duty."

"Well, with the magnitude of the fraud, I find it really almost impossible that the governor or his staff and the attorney general didn't know," Stauber said. "And the Minnesota taxpayers are paying for it."

"We want to know how much fraud. Is it still ongoing? Were people aware [and] turned a blind eye? That's pretty much the purpose of our investigation," Comer said on Friday.

The House Oversight Committee launched its investigation earlier this month after recent reports revealed that the state had been hemorrhaging funds through fraud schemes in its social benefit programs. 

But the documented problems stretch well beyond the one example.

Stauber said the widespread fraud had climbed into the "billions." It remains unclear, however, how much money the state has lost to fraud in recent years.

Although the schemes all look slightly different, Comer said they have one underlying question: Was Walz aware? 

"It's going to be a pretty comprehensive investigation," Comer said of efforts to answer that question. "We've gotten off to a pretty good start, because we have some whistleblowers." 

Comer said the whistleblowers told the committee that members inside the governor's office had been made aware of the fraud but that it had largely gone unheeded.

"They're alleging that they made the governor and the attorney general aware a long time ago, and they did nothing about it. And it's been an ongoing problem."  

He said the committee would send investigators to Minnesota in the near future but didn't give a timeline for how long he expected the investigation to take. Comer also declined to say exactly how many whistleblowers had spoken with the committee so far.

"Multiple," Comer said. 

When asked about the committee's investigation and whether Walz's office would comply with committee requests, the governor's office said yes.

"We look forward to working together. While the governor has been working to ensure fraudsters go to prison, the president has been letting them out," Walz's office said.