Democrat Gov. Tim Walz might already be under federal investigation for knowledge of Minnesota's Somali child-care fraud, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Newsmax.
"I'm not going to get too far ahead of it," McLaughlin told Friday night's "Finnerty," "but he should be aware that we're looking at culpability in this."
The scope of the investigation and direct connections to Walz were not shared by McLaughlin, though she acknowledged the issue when asked how closely Walz himself was being scrutinized.
"I think that Tim Walz may be culpable or at least complicit in this," she told host Rob Finnerty. "How would he not? It was right under his nose."
Walz has publicly defended his oversight over fraud allegations, an admission that begs the question about why he never called in the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, or other federal agencies, she added.
"He said he's been aware of fraud happening for some time: If that was actually the case, and he wasn't worried about this voting bloc or about politics, then he would have called in the FBI," she continued.
"He would have asked Homeland Security Investigations for help if he actually cared about the citizens that he purports to serve."
McLaughlin said the scope of the alleged fraud made inaction inexcusable, crediting independent reporting for exposing the issue.
"Seeing how rampant and obvious this fraud was — that a young man, this 22-year-old Nick Shirley, he did a great service to Americans that day," she said. "The Trump administration is going to deliver accountability."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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