The evidence now pouring out of Minnesota shows how a network of Somali nationals commandeered child-nutrition programs and siphoned off hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Investigators say more than 125 million phantom meals were billed — meals that never existed, children who were never fed.
The scandal didn’t spring up overnight. It grew in the blind spots created by Democratic leadership, where Gov. Tim Walz’s administration and Attorney General Keith Ellison’s team treated scrutiny as politically dangerous. Oversight softened. Red flags blurred. Critics were dismissed as stoking “racism,” and the operation flourished in the shadows.
When federal agents finally moved in, House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) demanded answers — not just about the fraud itself, but about who looked away and why. His question now sits at the center of the storm: What was covered up, and by whom?
Meanwhile, Rep. Ilhan Omar has waved off concerns, suggesting the whole debacle was the inevitable product of a “hasty COVID setup.” But the scale tells a different story, one that can’t simply be chalked up to chaos.
Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer has emerged as one of the clearest voices on the case, mapping out how the scheme operated, how oversight collapsed, and how political sensitivities shaped every step of the failure.
It is, in his telling, a cautionary tale of what happens when fear of backlash outweighs the basic duty to protect public funds — and the families those funds were meant to feed.
Watch the clip above.
