As protests continue in Minneapolis after the Saturday shooting death of a city resident by an immigration officer, the Trump administration is blaming local and state officials for “inciting” them in the wake of fraud investigations there.
Independent and federal investigations are ongoing after billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded fraud schemes were revealed over the past few months, with claims the fraud could range from $9 billion to $20 billion in Minnesota alone.
Republicans have labeled it “one of the biggest fraud schemes in American history.”
As widespread tensions continue to grow on the streets of the Twin Cities, Republicans are beginning to tie the rioting and the fraud together.
“When there was all the focus on the billions and billions of dollars in fraud happening in Minneapolis, suddenly Minneapolis became a powder keg,” said Todd Blanche, U.S. deputy attorney general. “The people who caused it to happen: the governor, the mayor, the attorney general, and [Ilhan] Omar. They incited rhetoric – encouraged rioters.”
Second-term Republican President Donald Trump has also made the connection between the fraud investigations and the riots, which first broke out over the seemingly unconnected enhanced enforcement of federal immigration law by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“Minnesota is a criminal cover up of the massive financial fraud that has gone on,” Trump wrote on social media on Sunday.
Monday, he added he is sending his border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to “report directly” to the president. Trump also said that the federal government is conducting a “major investigation” into fraud in Minnesota.
The president said welfare fraud “has taken place” and “is at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets.”
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined in on the claims from the Trump administration.
“Frankly, this didn’t turn violent until we uncovered the fraud in Minneapolis,” she said. “We were there … for years in Minneapolis. We saw the violence start to happen when the fraud became uncovered—the billions of dollars that were stolen from the American taxpayer under the leadership of Governor Walz and Mayor Frey.”
The fraud claims and investigations in Minnesota have garnered national attention since they first broke in the fall.
Last week, the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance held a hearing on the Minnesota fraud scandal investigation. Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledged that fraud is widespread throughout government welfare programs.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said during that hearing that the federal fraud investigations in Minnesota are just a “pretext” for surging federal agents to the Twin Cities.
“Fraud is not headquartered in one state, for one municipality, much less one ethnic, racial or religious community,” Raskin said. “But, President Trump couldn’t resist the temptation to use fraud in Minnesota as an occasion to mobilize the power of the federal government to bully and intimidate first and second generation Somali Americans who live in that state.”
Republicans say the fraud scandal goes far beyond what is already being reported.
“We’re uncovering layer after layer of fraud in Minnesota,” U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., wrote on social media. “Millions in taxpayer dollars are being misused, and officials are ignoring it while hardworking Americans pay the price.”
On Saturday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said “accountability is coming” for Minnesota Democrats, many of whom were recently subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the midst of an ongoing federal conspiracy investigation.
