The Media Went Dark on Minnesota Somali Fraud Scandal in 2024 to Protect Tim Walz

How could the national media ignore this salacious, growing scandal in the summer and fall of 2024? We know why. And now Walz is unrepentant in the face of an historic crisis.

At the time of this writing, the video produced by GenZ YouTuber Nick Shirley documenting some of the fraud committed by Somalis in Minneapolis over the past few years has nearly 121 million views. (If you have not watched the full video, find it here.)

Shirley’s expose revealing how a handful of Somalis received more than $100 million in Medicaid-related funds to operate nonexistent programs for the needy caught the attention of millions including Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and top Republican lawmakers in Washington; both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security quickly deployed agents to the ground in an apparent effort to follow up on Shirley’s reporting. (He was aided by a courageous Minneapolis resident named “David,” who has been collecting volumes of paperwork demonstrating the extensive fraud.)

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors in Minnesota brought more criminal charges in the sprawling scandal that has rocked the state and the nation. Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson said his office has identified 14 high-risk Medicaid-funded entities, including many tied to the Somali community, that have received $18 billion in tax dollars since 2018. At least half of that sum, Thompson predicted, consists of fraudulent payments made to shell companies representing “staggering, industrial-scale fraud.” (Thompson’s December 18 press conference is worth your time, link here.) “The magnitude of the fraud in Minnesota cannot be overstated,” Thompson said. “This is a problem that has caused all of us to ask what kind of state we live in. I think it has eroded our collective statewide self esteem and confidence.”

But that is not the case with Tim Walz, the Democratic governor on whose watch this mind-boggling level of pillage occurred. Rather than apologize, or better yet, resign in disgrace, Walz insists his office for years led the crackdown into the various scams. The governor’s spokesman told Fox News last week that Walz “has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed,” an apparent reference to Walz’s shuttering of the scandal-ridden housing stabilization program in August—which happened in response to growing media coverage and one month before Thompson’s office announced the first set of charges related to the program. Walz further suggested that the heightened level of scrutiny is a product of “white supremacy.”

What, Me Worry?

One can hardly blame Walz for his nonchalance and finger-pointing. Given recent history, why would Walz demonstrate a smidge of contrition over what one of his Republican predecessors just described as “the largest amount of public fraud in the history of the country?” After all, the national media—which continues to try its collective best to ignore, downplay, or excuse the burgeoning crisis, as Drew Holden documented here—ran cover for Walz on this very issue last year during his campaign for vice president.

Despite ongoing court proceedings in Minnesota related to the early stages of the overall fraud investigation—brought by former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022, by the way—including credible allegations that several Somalis on trial in June 2024 on child nutrition fraud charges attempted to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash, the news media ignored the matter after Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate on August 6, 2024.

It was not for lack of content. Throughout the summer and fall of 2024, state and federal investigators widened their net to examine other Medicaid-funded programs in Minnesota currently at the heart of the scandal; in September 2024, more than two dozen autism service “providers” were under the microscope for potential fraud, a bombshell development reported only by local online sites at the time.

But none of the cases or lines of inquiry, which heavily implicated the Somali community in Minneapolis, came up during multiple interviews with Walz before the election; moderators avoided the matter during the only vice presidential debate on October 1. When a defendant in the aforementioned child nutrition fraud trial—he and four others were found guilty of stealing at least $40 million in public funds by way of the “Feeding for the Future” program—was sentenced to 12 years in prison on October 14, 2024, major news organizations and reporters covering the campaign didn’t make a peep.

In fact, a search of New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC coverage of the scandal between August 2024 and November 2024 resulted in one article; a surprisingly even-handed analysis by CNN calling into question Walz’ refusal to accept responsibility for what was happening in his state. “A CNN review of audits – and the responses they prompted – as well as interviews with statewide politicians and pundits, found that Walz has been a hands-off leader when it comes to seeking accountability for episodes of fraud and mismanagement on his watch,” CNN reporters wrote on October 4, 2024. (After publishing a few explosive articles about the made-for-clicks “Feeding the Future” trial, the NYT went completely dark once Walz was the nominee.)

Such a blackout in news coverage must be considered intentional. Recall that the Trump campaign considered Minnesota a possible pick-up in 2024; amplifying the theft of hundreds of millions in public dollars to benefit foreigners at the expense of taxpaying Americans on Walz’ watch could have moved the needle in the state and across the country. (Luckily, Trump didn’t need the state to win.)

Running Cover for Walz…Again

Now, some of those same news outlets that protected Walz, up for re-election this year, from scrutiny during his failed bid for vice president are resorting back to form. The real villains, according to reporters and commentators, are not Somali immigrants who looted billions from generous U.S. taxpayers while gallingly confronting and threatening American journalists and citizens attempting to get to the bottom of their crimes, but rather Republican elected officials and MAGA loyalists who are “seizing“ on the historic plundering.

NYT columnist Mara Gay accused the DOJ and FBI of “politicizing” the issue by surging new resources into Minnesota and, of course, of being racist for doing so. “The other factor here is that because it looks like the Somali population in Minnesota--the Somali immigrant population--may have been involved in some way, those people are being scapegoated. That community is being scapegoated in a way that certainly serves the far right, and that’s also something to keep an eye on,” Gay, apparently uninformed as to the number of Somalis charged and convicted by the Biden DOJ in the scandal, said on MS-NOW on Monday.

But one gets the sense this political scandal is too massive, too egregious, and too infuriating to be saved by the tut-tutting of the commentariat. With more charges expected in Minnesota and similar inquiries, and perhaps similar independent reporting, expanding to other states, even the most race-baiting, MAGA-hating mouthpiece can’t convince Americans (most, anyway) not to believe their own eyes.