Comer summons Minnesota officials as House probes billion-dollar social services fraud
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FIRST ON FOX: The House Oversight Committee is expanding its investigation into allegations of widespread fraud within Minnesota’s social services programs, which prosecutors say could be worth billions of dollars.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., sent letters to seven current and former Minnesota state officials 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 federal cooperation in the investigation and requesting briefings for committee staff by January 9.
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol October 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs. As Director of Nutrition Program Services and in your previous roles as Deputy 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 in its investigation,” reads one of those letters, sent to Emily Honer, Director of Nutrition Program Services at the Minnesota Department of Education. Minnesota.
“Accordingly, we are requesting your testimony in a transcribed in-person interview on January 26, 2026. If you do not voluntarily appear for the interview, we will be forced to evaluate the use of the mandatory procedure.”
Another current official, Daron Korte, deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education, has been 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 to 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 deputy commissioner for homeless people and housing support.
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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 Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice, as well as transcribed interviews with Minnesota state officials.”
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged several people with stealing more than $240 million from the federal child nutrition program through Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota-based nonprofit.
The investigation has since expanded to include several state-run programs under investigation for potential fraud.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks during a town hall meeting at the DeYor Performing Arts Center April 7, 2025, in Youngstown, Ohio. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
Officials investigating the investigation now question whether people at the highest levels of Minnesota government knew about the signs of fraud but took no action to stop it.
Gov. Tim Walz, who is seeking a third term, took responsibility in remarks to reporters Friday: “It’s on my watch. I’m responsible for it. And more importantly, I’m the one who’s going to fix it.”
He, however, cast doubt on federal prosecutors’ accusations that the fraud could have run into the billions.
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“You should be just as outraged about $1 or whatever that number is, but they’re using that number, without any evidence,” Walz said. “But extrapolating that number for sensationalism, or making statements about it, that doesn’t really help us.”
Walz also said he was a “partner” with the federal government in stopping 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 news conference Thursday to announce that the fraud investigation was expanding to focus on 14 programs aimed at disbursing Medicaid funds.
Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said these programs have cost about $18 billion since 2018, of which he said a “significant amount” likely fell prey to fraud.
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“This is a staggering fraud, on an industrial scale,” he said at the press conference.
Thompson said some of those dollars came from real estate investments in Nairobi, Kenya.
He also said “money went indirectly to Somalia” and “could have fallen into the hands” of the militant group Al-Shabaab, but said there was “no indication that the defendants we have charged were radicalized or seeking to finance 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.
