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GOP-led House committee subpoenas Tim Walz in $250M COVID fraud investigation
MINNEAPOLIS — Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor and the Democratic nominee for vice president, is being summoned to stand before a U.S. House of Representatives committee and answer questions about the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal.
The Minnesota-based nonprofit has been accused of diverting $250 million in federal funds meant to feed low-income children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Republican-led House Education and the Workforce Committee issued subpoenas on Wednesday to Walz and leaders from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of Inspector General.
Committee chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx, Republican of New York, made the following allegation regarding Walz in the cover letter of the subpoena:
“Statements in the press by you and your representatives indicate that you and other executive officers were involved, or had knowledge of, (the Minnesota Department of Education’s) administration of the (Federal Child Nutrition Programs) and responsibilities and actions regarding the massive fraud.”
Walz was given until Sept. 18 to provide documents and the requested information to the committee, whose membership includes Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Why is Walz being targeted by the GOP-led committee?
Since the scandal broke in early 2022, Walz has repeatedly denied that his administration dragged its feet in investigating the nonprofit.
“We caught this fraud. We caught it very early. We alerted the right people,” Walz said in September 2022. “We were taken to court. We were sued. We were threatened with going to jail. We stuck with it.”
He also accused a county judge of ordering the education department to resume funding the nonprofit in 2021 after payments were cut early into the state’s fraud investigation. The judge denied making the order, and said the department voluntarily resumed payments despite “serious deficiencies.”
Steven Senne / AP
Walz then issued a plan that called for the installation of an inspector general in the education department and an expansion of the Office of Grants Management.
In June 2024, Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor issued a report that accused the education department of “inadequate” oversight that “created opportunities for fraud.”
Following the report’s release, Minnesota Republicans continued to lay blame at Walz’s feet.
“Either Gov. Walz holds his appointed commissioners and other staff accountable and we stop the waste and fraud, or this is going to continue,” said GOP Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson.
A Walz spokesperson gave this statement to CBS News Minnesota on Thursday following news of the subpoena:
“This was an appalling abuse of a federal COVID-era program. The state department of education worked diligently to stop the fraud and we’re grateful to the FBI for working with the department of education to arrest and charge the individuals involved.”
What is the Feeding Our Future scandal?
Feeding Our Future was founded in 2017 by Aimee Bock with the mission of feeding hungry children throughout the Twin Cities. The nonprofit initially received just less than $3 million in federal funds, but that amount spiked to nearly $200 million by 2021.
When the nonprofit dissolved in February 2022, Bock said they had served meals to more than 30,000 kids in BIPOC communities and “did a lot of great work in the community.”
The federal government charged Bock and more than 70 others in what U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger called “the largest pandemic fraud in the United States” in 2022. Bock maintains she is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The defendants are accused of using the majority of the stolen money to buy homes, property, luxury vehicles, jewelry and to pay for travel.
In June 2024, a Minnesota man pleaded guilty to bribery after a bag filled with $120,000 in cash was left at a juror’s home amid the trial of seven defendants. That juror was dismissed, and five of the defendants were found guilty. Four others have been charged in the bribery case.
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”