type: timeline_event
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison confirmed their appearance at the committee's hearing on "Oversight of Fraud and Misuse of Federal Funds in Minnesota: Part II" scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. ET. Comer stated, "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."
The announcement followed the January 7 hearing where Minnesota state lawmakers testified under oath that Walz and Ellison failed to act to stop widespread fraud and retaliated against whistleblowers. Chairman Comer detailed a new audit report showing Minnesota's Department of Human Services intentionally backdated documents and awarded nearly $680,000 to a grantee without evidence any work was performed, with the state employee who approved the payment resigning days later to work for that same grantee. Witnesses at the first hearing revealed that the Walz administration retaliated against employees who warned about fraud, with the Governor reportedly accusing employees of racism and Islamophobia and threatening surveillance to silence them.
Comer called on Walz and Ellison to provide documents, communications, and records about the widespread fraud, and requested the U.S. Department of the Treasury provide all relevant Suspicious Activity Reports to support the investigation. The committee also scheduled transcribed interviews with several current and former Minnesota state officials to be completed in February. The hearing demonstrates Congress using oversight powers to investigate alleged state-level corruption involving federal funds, though the political targeting of the Democratic governor and attorney general raised questions about selective enforcement and partisan weaponization of congressional investigative authority.