The Star Tribune features Deena Winter’s interview of Acting United States Attorney Joe Thompson (the link is to his Department of Justice profile) under the headline “Who is Joe Thompson?” I can answer that question and trust that Power Line readers can too. Joe Thompson is the man…
Winter calls Joe “a thorn in state government’s side.” That is not how I would put it. To be sure, he is an embarrassment to Governor Tim Walz and Attorney Keith Ellison, but he is a friend to law-abiding Minnesota citizens and American taxpayers. See, for example, the prosecution of the massive Feeding Our Future fraud case.
In another Thompson-related story, the Star Tribune reports what should be deemed the Thompson effect: “Minnesota halts payments to housing program providers amid fraud investigation.” That investigation is Joe’s case too. Minnesota probably saved itself $50 million with the stop-payments yesterday. Will anyone say “thank you, Mr. Thompson”?
Winter asks about Joe’s parents. I met Joe’s father in court during the second Feeding Our Future trial. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
What about his mom?
The first time my mom came to watch me in court was the day that the jury bribery (in a Feeding our Future case) became public. At the end of the day, she was like “Wow, that was really exciting.” I’m like, “Mom, it’s never like that. You picked a good day to come.”
Winter asks him who is responsible for “all of this” fraud:
As a prosecutor, I’m expected to say the defendants are responsible for their crimes — and they are. But if we pretend that’s the whole story, we’re lying to ourselves. This fraud crisis didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of widespread failure across nearly every level of leadership in Minnesota: Politicians who turned a blind eye. Agencies that failed to act. Prosecutors and law enforcement who didn’t push hard enough. Reporters who ignored the story. Community leaders who stayed silent. And a public that wanted to believe it couldn’t happen here.
This isn’t just a few criminals exploiting the system, this is a system that’s been begging to be exploited. We left the door wide open, and now our state has been ransacked. If we keep ignoring the truth, we’re going to lose something far more important than money. We’re going to lose the Minnesota we know and love.
Joe holds out hope, but we have lost the Minnesota we knew and loved. With that qualification, I would only add that the fraud Joe is talking about here is what you get when you cross a Third-World tribal culture with Minnesota’s native Democratic establishment.
