Comer summons Minnesota officials as House probes massive social services fraud
FIRST ON FOX: The House Oversight Committee is widening its probe into allegations of widespread fraud within Minnesota's social services programs, which prosecutors suggested could be worth billions of dollars.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent letters to seven current and former Minnesota state officials on Monday morning, inviting them for transcribed interviews with his panel.
Comer sent two additional letters to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, seeking the federal government's cooperation in the probe and requesting briefings for committee staff by Jan. 9.
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"The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs. As the Director of Nutrition Program Services and in your previous roles as the Assistant Director of Nutrition Program Services and Supervisor of Business Operations and Support Services for the Minnesota Department of Education, you have information that will assist the Committee’s investigation," read one such letter, sent to Emily Honer, the director of Nutrition Program Services at the Minnesota Department of Education.
"Accordingly, we request your testimony at an in-person transcribed interview on January 26, 2026. If you do not voluntarily appear for the interview, we will be forced to evaluate the use of the compulsory process."
Another current official, Minnesota Department of Education Assistant Commissioner Daron Korte, was asked to appear on Jan. 28.
Similar letters were sent to the following former officials with requests to appear on dates ranging from late January through early February: former Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead, former Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker, former Minnesota Department of Human Services Chief Financial Officer David Greeman, former Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Tony Lourey, and Eric Grumdahl, the department's former Assistant Commissioner of Homelessness & Housing Supports.
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"Whistleblowers have made it clear that American taxpayers were defrauded in Minnesota, raising serious questions about whether Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison failed to act or were complicit in the theft," Comer told Fox News Digital. "Today, the Committee is requesting information from the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice, as well as transcribed interviews with Minnesota state officials."
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged multiple people with stealing more than $240 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future.
The probe has since widened to multiple state-run programs being investigated for potential fraud.
Officials investigating are now questioning whether people at the very top of Minnesota's government were aware of signs of fraud but did not act in any way to stop it.
Gov. Tim Walz, who is running for a third term, took accountability in remarks to reporters on Friday: "This is on my watch. I am accountable for this. And more importantly, I am the one that will fix it."
He heaped doubt on federal prosecutors' accusations that the fraud could have totaled in the billions, however.
"You should be equally outraged about $1 or whatever that number is, but they're using that number, without the proof behind it," Walz said. "But to extrapolate what that number is for sensationalism, or to make statements about it, it doesn't really help us."
Walz also said he was "partners" with the federal government in stopping the fraud, and said he stopped payments to programs suspected of fraud in July after being granted the ability to do so.
U.S. prosecutors held a press conference on Thursday announcing the fraud probe was widening to focus on 14 programs aimed at disbursing Medicaid funds.
Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said those programs have cost roughly $18 billion since 2018, of which he said a "significant amount" likely fell prey to fraud.
"It is staggering, industrial-scale fraud," he said during the press conference.
Thompson said some of those dollars have been traced to real estate investments in Nairobi, Kenya.
He also said "some money went to Somalia indirectly" and "might have gotten into the hands" of militant group Al-Shabaab, but stated there was "no indication that the defendants that we've charged were radicalized or seeking to fund Al-Shabaab or other terrorist groups."
Fox News Digital reached out to Walz's office, as well as the offices of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Education for comment.