Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett and his Republican colleagues fiercely grilled Minnesota’s top two chiefs about their alleged complicity in fraud and misuse of federal funds.
During a House Oversight Hearing on Wednesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison repeatedly failed to explain why so much fraud occurred under their oversight.
Burchett for his part sought to stress that the committee had already interviewed over 30 whistleblowers, many of whom alleged to have suffered retaliation for speaking out against the Walz administration.
His grilling of Walz began gently.
“Have you ever used taxpayer funds, directly or indirectly, to take action against individuals suspected of disclosing potential wrongdoing within a government entity?” he asked.
“I have not,” Walz answered.
“Well, almost 30 whistleblowers accused you and your administration of retaliation,” Burchett pushed back, upping the ante. “Would you say that’s a conspiracy?”
“I can’t speak to what they said,” Walz replied, sticking to his script.
“Okay, are you aware of reports alleging state officials have engaged in retaliation against whistleblowers?” Burchett promptly fired back, tightening the noose.
“Not specifically, no,” Walz alleged.
“You’re not aware of that? When 30 have come forward?” Burchett said in disbelief. “A whistleblower told our office that her supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services threatened to make her job difficult. And the supervisor that did that later received a promotion.”
Next up was Burchett’s grilling of Ellison, who was notorious for not demanding the return of stolen money from fraudsters like Partners in Nutrition (d/b/a Partners in Quality Care) and Youth Leadership Academy (d/b/a Gar Gaar Family Services).
Burchett demanded to know why he’d allowed them to “settle” without paying any restitution.
“Why did you not prosecute Partners in Quality Care or the Gar-Gar Family Services?” he asked.
“Because my office doesn’t have jurisdiction to prosecute in those cases,” Ellison replied.
“You allowed them to dissolve, but no one was prosecuted,” Burchett pushed back. “And PIQC is accused of $300 million in fraud as significant assets, yet no charges and no attempts to recover taxpayer money: I’ll remind you all, $19 billion.”
“I was a state legislator, and I can remember when our state budget was $19 billion. This is money that’s been stolen, and it will not be recovered. And you all are to blame. And every dadgum one of you all ought to step down,” he added before ending his time.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “When it comes to the corruption… no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion…”
“I am officially announcing the war on fraud…” pic.twitter.com/JiL18umxzk
— Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) February 25, 2026
Later during the hearing, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry took a few of his own shots at Walz over his state’s history of handing out CDL licenses to illegal aliens.
“What are you going to do to rectify the law that you signed that allows people here illegally to get a CDL?” he asked the governor.
He also showed a video of a truck being driven in the wrong lane.
“If you don’t want to protect the people in your state, I guess that’s your business and the business of your voters, but that driver was driving in Missouri, and if he’d have hit a bunch of people, quite honestly, to me, you could’ve been held liable,” Perry continued.
“First of all, Minnesota ranks in the top three safest states by highway data from your own departments,” Walz replied. “The data from the Department of Transportation for highway safety … We want everybody on our roads to be licensed.”
Perry dismissed Waltz’ highway “data” and demanded to know if he was “okay” with incidents like the one depicted in the video below:
🚨 WATCH: A Missouri driver encountered a illegal alien driving the wrong way for miles on Highway 61, narrowly avoiding a head-on crash before the truck sped off southbound.
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 25, 2026
Waltz repeatedly asserted that he wasn’t, but Perry remained unconvinced.
“But you signed this law that allows for that! You signed it!” the congressman noted. “And you’re going to do nothing about it!”
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
