Fresh off the high of being selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, Tim Walz is getting heaps of praise from the left.
But unbeknownst to many Democratic voters is that Walz was a key figure in a massive fraud scheme — one that bilked the taxpayers of his home state out of billions.
According to an audit published by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) for the state of Minnesota in June, Walz’s administration contributed to the theft of $250 million from a federal food aid program.
The report stated that the scheme’s participants allegedly doctored invoices for millions of meals for children, ultimately siphoning off more than $250 million in federal funds.
At the time, Walz claimed he was unable to stop the scheme due to a 2021 court order to resume payments — a claim the judge disputed, according to The Associated Press.
The Minnesota Department of Education, which fell under Walz’s purview as governor, “failed to act on warning signs known to the department prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and prior to the start of the alleged fraud, did not effectively exercise its authority to hold Feeding Our Future accountable to program requirements, and was ill-prepared to respond to the issues it encountered with Feeding Our Future,” the OLA audit stated.
“This is stunning,” GOP Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson told local affiliate NBC 11 Minneapolis in a June press conference.
“The Department of Education and Gov. Walz have repeatedly tried to tell the public that they did all they could… but this report clearly demonstrates that was a false narrative.”
According to the Associated Press, 70 individuals were indicted in the case, with five convicted and two acquitted so far.
At the time of the release of the report, Walz said he accepted responsibility after the report found his administration failed to stop what federal prosecutors call the biggest pandemic fraud case in the nation.
However, Walz’s team responded saying there wasn’t malfeasance at the state, according to MPR News.
“There’s not a single state employee that was implicated in doing anything that was illegal. They simply didn’t do as much due diligence as they should have,” said Walz. “So, there’s been leadership changes in these organizations since that time, and we have new leadership in sense the certainly over at the Department of Education.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Walz’s office for additional comment about the report, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.