Minnesota’s Fraud Crisis Didn’t Go Away. It Just Got Harder to See. 

This article originally appeared in The Daily Signal on January 31, 2026.

Before Minneapolis became a national flashpoint, before the protests and the nightly footage of chaos, something far more consequential was already underway: a sweeping fraud scandal involving billions of taxpayer dollars.

Federal investigators were digging into large-scale abuse of public programs, raising serious questions about who allowed it, how long it went on, and where the money went. These were not isolated mistakes or paperwork errors. They were allegations of systemic fraud involving federal funds and activity that crossed jurisdictions, the kind of case that requires federal investigation.

Because the alleged misconduct involved federal dollars and potential criminal networks operating across state lines, federal law enforcement had a responsibility to step in. That work was already in motion when events on the ground began to escalate.

Read full op-ed in The Daily Signal