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As town of Minneapolis faces a $1 billion welfare scandal, Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen spoke to Fox Information Digital about his perception that Gov. Tim Walz just isn’t solely straight liable for the controversy, however steered {that a} “cowl up” that’s “worse than Watergate” is at play.
Walz’s position in what’s been labeled by prosecutors because the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme within the nation, stemming from allegations that the Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future and its associates defrauded federal child-nutrition packages for tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} in COVID-19 support, has been a serious subject of dialog within the gubernatorial race in latest weeks.
“In Minnesota, I do not suppose that there is any method to lower it apart from to say the buck has to cease someplace,” Jensen informed Fox Information Digital. “And it is all the time been that the buck stops on the governor’s desk. Arguably, the governor is the CEO of the state of Minnesota and the enterprise of the federal government. And Tim Walz has been derelict in doing his duties, and he is completely corrupted frequent sense.”
The dereliction, Jensen defined, is obvious when one examines a timeline he says exhibits Walz knew about Feeding Our Future fraud far sooner than he has admitted after which misled Minnesotans about his administration’s response.
OMAR ALLIES TIED TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA COVID MEAL FRAUD SCHEME INVOLVING SOMALI COMMUNITY
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sits for an interview with Star Tribune journalists in his workplace on the State Capitol in St. Paul on Dec. 12, 2024. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Tribune Information Service through Getty Pictures)
“Tim Walz and the Minnesota Division of Schooling knew in 2020 that there was an issue… however they did not get the FBI concerned till 2021,” Jensen mentioned. “And but they’ve made claims that as quickly as they realized about it, they bought the FBI concerned. That is not true. Their timeline’s a 12 months off.”
Jensen argues the delay was not simply mismanagement however a part of a broader sample of deflection and dishonesty from the governor’s workplace.
“On the finish of the day, he’s demonstrated a really expert method to deflecting, in order that he’s not being trustworthy,” Jensen mentioned.
Jensen cited a number of examples of actions by Walz that he views as deflecting the blame onto others, together with in 2022 after the primary indictments within the scandal have been handed down by the FBI and U.S. Lawyer, and Walz positioned blame on district courtroom choose John Guthman for allegedly forcing the state to proceed fraudulent funds.
In what was described by media shops on the time as a “uncommon public rebuke,” Guthman fired again at Walz accusing him of creating “inaccurate statements.”
ICE OPERATION IN MINNEAPOLIS NABS A DOZEN ‘WORST OF THE WORST’ CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS, INCLUDING SOMALIS
Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen. (AP Photograph/Nicole Neri)
“When Decide Guthman did that, you then noticed Tim Walz and Keith Ellison strive for another person they might blame it on,” Jensen informed Fox Information Digital. “In order that they blamed it on the FBI and mentioned, ‘Properly, the FBI informed us we needed to maintain paying as a result of we’re not presupposed to intrude with their investigation.’ And the FBI mentioned, ‘We did not make you proceed fraudulent funds to the Feeding Our Future company.’”
Jensen informed Fox Information Digital that the “elephant within the room” is what else will come out sooner or later in regards to the “cowl up” of the scandal.
“The underlying query needs to be: is there one thing extra nefarious than this?” Jensen mentioned.
“Is there actually sequestration of funds that in some unspecified time in the future in time might be paid again to individuals when issues have calmed down? Is there some pay-to-play scheme that we have not but been knowledgeable about? That is what’s actually scary, as a result of if that is the case, then you must, you must ask your self the query: will there be at some degree a necessity for felony prosecution to happen of some Minnesota elected officers?”
LIZ PEEK: MASSIVE MINNESOTA WELFARE HEIST PROVES DEMOCRATS CAN’T POLICE THEIR OWN MESS
A view of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, at nightfall. (Ariana Lindquist/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures)
The welfare fraud controversy has obtained the eye of the federal authorities in latest days.
The Small Enterprise Administration introduced it’s investigating the community of Somali teams in Minnesota that it says are tied to the large COVID fraud scandal highlighting alleged systemic failures by Walz’s crew to correctly audit public funds.
Home Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has claimed that “due to Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals — together with Somali terrorists — stole practically $1 billion from this system whereas youngsters suffered.” He’s main the probe into Walz’s position within the Feeding Our Future scandal.
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President Donald Trump additionally not too long ago introduced a flurry of latest actions to crack down and examine fraud schemes in Minnesota, which he has assailed as a “hub of cash laundering exercise,” and cited as the idea of his resolution to terminate deportation protections for tons of of Somali migrants.
Senior Trump administration officers introduced contemporary investigations this week, together with a brand new Treasury Division probe into how taxpayer {dollars} have been allegedly diverted to the terrorist group al-Shabaab, in response to Secretary Scott Bessent.
“With the place it is gone from the start to now, recognizing that there is been an curiosity in masking this up, for many individuals it has a few of the haunting reminders of Watergate,” Jensen informed Fox Information Digital.
“And but, on this method, this time, it may even be worse, as a result of it is potential that there is one thing much more nefarious than merely masking one thing up. It might be a pay to play scheme that entails elected officers.”
Fox Information Digital requested Jensen, who ran towards Walz in 2022, what he believes the governor’s legacy is after two phrases in workplace.
“Tim Walz’ legacy proper now can be fraud at an unprecedented degree, and I feel from his insurance policies, I feel individuals would say he appeared to worship the bottom that AOC and Bernie Sanders walked on,” Jensen defined. “He went from somebody who many individuals who knew him earlier in life considered a average particular person to an individual who was actually dwelling on the five-yard line of the exhausting left a part of the Democratic area.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to Walz’s workplace for remark.
Fox Information Digital’s Deirdre Heavey and Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
