Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (KY-01) announced Wednesday that his committee will begin holding hearings on the growing Minnesota Somali fraud scandal next week. The first hearing is scheduled for January 7, and will feature the testimonies of three Minnesota Republican lawmakers. A second hearing is scheduled for February 10, with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and its attorney general, Keith Ellison, invited to answer questions from Congress.
In his announcement, Comer said Walz and Ellison "have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s social services programs," and promised "Congress will not stop until taxpayers get the answers and accountability they deserve.”
NEW: House Oversight Committee Chairman @RepJamesComer announces the committee’s first hearing into the MN Somali fraud scandal will be on January 7th & will feature MN state lawmakers who sounded the alarm on the fraud & were allegedly ignored. MN Gov. Tim Walz & AG Keith… pic.twitter.com/jrSFEa7GKM
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 31, 2025
NEW: House Oversight Committee Chairman @RepJamesComer announces the committee’s first hearing into the MN Somali fraud scandal will be on January 7th & will feature MN state lawmakers who sounded the alarm on the fraud & were allegedly ignored. MN Gov. Tim Walz & AG Keith Ellison are being invited to testify before the committee in a second hearing on February 10th.
“Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s social services programs,” Comer writes. “Next week, we will hear from Minnesota state lawmakers who sounded the alarm on this fraud—and whose warnings were ignored by the Walz administration. This misconduct cannot be swept aside, and Congress will not stop until taxpayers get the answers and accountability they deserve.”
Interest in the scandal, in which it's estimated that over $9 billion was funneled into sham Minnesota businesses – primarily in the Somali community – reached a fever pitch earlier this week after a video by independent journalist Nick Shirley, 23, went viral. The video shows Shirley visiting several daycares that received public monies only to find that many had no children present.
With the spotlight burning brightly on Walz and Ellison, who, as Comer notes, were either "asleep at the wheel" or "complicit" in the fraud, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) descended on Minneapolis earlier this week and began doing door-to-door sweeps in effort to root out the "ghost" daycares. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem promised there would be more sweeps coming.
Watch: DHS and ICE Investigators Going Door to Door to Crack Down on Suspected Minneapolis Scammers
On Tuesday, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill announced that it would be freezing childcare payments to Minnesota as a result of the fraud. "We believe the state of Minnesota has allowed scammers and fake daycares to siphon millions of taxpayer dollars over the past decade," O'Neill said in his video statement.
It's unclear whether Tim Walz and Keith Ellison will have the guts to face the Oversight Committee in February, but Comer promised to keep pursuing accountability, saying, "Congress has a duty to conduct rigorous oversight of this heist and enact stronger safeguards to prevent fraud in taxpayer-funded programs, as well as strong sanctions to hold offenders accountable."
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