They knew all along about fraud

The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee released a comprehensive report on fraud in Minnesota. The headline from the committee’s press release,

Oversight Committee Releases Bombshell Report Exposing Rampant Fraud Plaguing Minnesota’s Taxpayer-Funded Social Programs.

The report itself runs some 205 pages (including appendices) and makes five key findings. You will not be surprised by Finding No. 1,

Finding #1. Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison Knew about Widespread Fraud and Failed to Act.

Of course they did. But why did they fail to act? The committee takes up that issue in Finding No. 3,

Finding #3. Political and External Pressures Distorted Decision Making.

It was in the political interests of Messrs. Walz and Ellison to take no action against widespread fraud as it involved a key constituency in the Democrats’ governing coalition.

Your correspondent is mentioned in footnotes 379, 391, 396, 399, and 401 of the report proper. In addition to citing my work on this website, the committee report cites (Footnote 32) a 2019 (!) article from our magazine Thinking Minnesota on child care fraud.

The committee report, released today, is getting good coverage in local outlets and the usual right-leaning national outlets. Here’s hoping that the legacy media look into the subject.

[Note: an earlier version of this post appeared at Power Line.]