A tense exchange unfolded on Capitol Hill as Rep. Jim Jordan confronted Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his past statements regarding a massive pandemic-era fraud case.
According to Fox News, during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Jordan accused Walz of misrepresenting why Minnesota resumed payments to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit later accused of orchestrating one of the largest COVID-related fraud schemes in the country.
“Why didn’t you tell the truth about why you restarted the payments?” Jordan asked.
The dispute centers on Walz’s prior comments that a judge ordered the Minnesota Department of Education to continue reimbursements to Feeding Our Future in April 2021 after the agency halted payments amid fraud concerns.
Jordan pointed to a 2022 court-authorized news release from then-Ramsey County District Court Judge John H. Guthmann disputing that claim.
“On September 22, 2022, Governor Tim Walz told the media that the Minnesota Department of Education attempted to end payments to FOF because of possible fraud, but that Judge Guthmann ordered payments to continue in April 2021. That is also false,” the release stated.
“As the public court record and Judge Guthmann’s orders make plain, Judge Guthmann never issued an order requiring the MN Department of Education to resume food reimbursement payments to FOF.”
Reading directly from the statement, Jordan pressed the governor.
“So either you’re lying or the court’s lying. And I’m just asking you which one is it?” Jordan said.
Walz responded that his understanding was based on advice from agency attorneys at the time.
“The agency believed that the court had required them to make those payments,” Walz said.
“I just simply know what the attorneys at the agency believe that it was a misinterpretation,” he added.
Jordan dismissed that explanation.
“You’re trying to hide behind some pretend court order. Some court order that didn’t exist,” he said.
The Justice Department has described the Feeding Our Future case as a sprawling scheme involving more than $250 million in taxpayer funds meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In November, federal authorities charged another defendant, bringing the total number of individuals charged in Minnesota fraud-related cases to 98, according to the House Oversight Committee.
Eighty-five of those defendants are of Somali descent.
When asked how many people had been indicted in his state, Walz said, “I don’t have those numbers with me.”
Walz, who previously announced he would not seek re-election, acknowledged vulnerabilities in public programs.
“I’ll be the first to acknowledge that,” he told lawmakers. “But let me be clear. In Minnesota, if you defraud public programs, if you steal taxpayer money, we’ll find you, we’ll prosecute you, we’ll convict you, and we’ll throw you in jail.”
