GOP Challenger Links Walz to $1B Fraud Scandal, Compares to Watergate

Minneapolis is grappling with what prosecutors describe as the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country, a $1 billion scandal that has become a focal point in Minnesota’s political landscape. Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen has directly accused Governor Tim Walz of responsibility and alleged a cover-up that he claims is “worse than Watergate.”

The controversy centers around allegations that the Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future and its associates defrauded federal child-nutrition programs of hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 aid funds. This scandal has emerged as a defining issue in Minnesota’s gubernatorial race.

“In Minnesota, I don’t think that there’s any way to cut it other than to say the buck has to stop somewhere,” Jensen told Fox News Digital. “And it’s always been that the buck stops at the governor’s desk. Arguably, the governor is the CEO of the state of Minnesota and the business of the government. And Tim Walz has been derelict in doing his duties, and he’s absolutely corrupted common sense.”

Jensen claims that a timeline of events contradicts Walz’s statements about when his administration became aware of the fraud and how they responded. According to Jensen, “Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Education knew in 2020 that there was a problem… but they didn’t get the FBI involved until 2021. And yet they’ve made claims that as soon as they learned about it, they got the FBI involved. That’s not true. Their timeline’s a year off.”

The Republican candidate alleges this represents more than mere mismanagement, suggesting it reflects a pattern of deflection and dishonesty from Walz’s office. Jensen pointed to incidents where the governor appeared to shift blame onto others, including Minnesota district court judge John Guthman, whom Walz suggested had forced the state to continue making fraudulent payments.

This accusation led to what media described as a “rare public rebuke” from Judge Guthman, who accused the governor of making “inaccurate statements.” Jensen alleges that when this attempt to shift blame failed, Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison tried to blame the FBI, claiming federal investigators had instructed them to continue payments to avoid interfering with the investigation – a claim the FBI denied.

Jensen raised concerns about what may still be uncovered about the scandal. “The underlying question has to be: is there something more nefarious than this?” he asked. “Is there literally sequestration of funds that at some point in time could be paid back to people when things have calmed down? Is there some pay-to-play scheme that we haven’t yet been informed about?”

The controversy has attracted significant federal attention. The Small Business Administration recently announced an investigation into the network of Somali groups in Minnesota allegedly tied to the massive COVID fraud scandal. House Oversight Chairman James Comer has claimed that “because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals — including Somali terrorists — stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered” and is leading a probe into Walz’s role in the scandal.

Former President Donald Trump has also focused on the issue, announcing new actions to investigate fraud schemes in Minnesota, which he has characterized as a “hub of money laundering activity.” Trump has cited the scandal as part of his justification for terminating deportation protections for hundreds of Somali migrants.

The Treasury Department has launched a new probe into allegations that taxpayer dollars were diverted to the terrorist organization al-Shabaab, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Jensen, who previously ran against Walz in 2022, offered a harsh assessment of the governor’s legacy: “Tim Walz’ legacy right now would be fraud at an unprecedented level, and I think from his policies, I think people would say he seemed to worship the ground that AOC and Bernie Sanders walked on. He went from someone who many people who knew him earlier in life thought of as a moderate person to a person who was literally living on the five-yard line of the hard left part of the Democratic field.”

Governor Walz’s office did not respond to requests for comment on these allegations.