On Thursday First Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson unveiled new charges and a search warrant in a case under investigation in Minnesota’s massive public-programs fraud committed by an almost exclusively Somali cast of perpetrators. Yesterday Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attacked Thompson for his assessment of the ulimate loss in these cases based on what he has seen to date. The Star Tribune quotes Walz speaking at a press conference yesterday: “It’s speculating. To extrapolate what that number is for sensationalism, or to make statements about it, it doesn’t really help us.”
The related Star Tribune story appears under the byline of Jeffrey Meitrodt and two of his colleagues. Meitrodt must be proud of the story. Last night he emailed it both to my personal gmail account and to our Power Line gmail account. Here’s hoping that mentioning it doesn’t trigger another fit of rage.
The Star Tribune story raises the question, who ya gonna believe? The governor who has blamed everyone but himself for the massive fraud that he concedes — $1 billion per the Star Tribune story — even if he disputes Thompson on the ultimate amount, or the independent prosecutor who has devoted his career over the past four years to these cases? Thompson or the Star Tribune’s Operation Walz?
In 2022 Walz blamed Ramsey County Judge John Guthmann for tying his hands in the Feeding Our Future fraud. Judge Guthmann was not amused. He issued a public statement denouncing both Walz and the Star Tribune.
Walz is now running for reelection to a third term on what has to be the worst record ever compiled by a Minnesota governor. Maybe someone at the Star Tribune could ask Atttorney General Keith Ellison why his office caved in the case before Judge Guthmann. Ellison is somehow missing in action.
The Star Tribune essentially seeks to discredit Thompson as a political player if not a Trump surrogate. At his own press conference this week Thompson discussed the six new cases and unsealed search warrant in an as yet uncharged case involving one of the 14 so-called “waivered” Minnesota Medicaid programs. These programs have cost the state some $18 billion.
The Star Tribune begrudges Thompson’s effort to disclose an estimate of fraud losses based on his investigation to date. The story all but protests the “transparency” Thompson has brought to these cases.
Thompson, it should be noted, was first hired to serve as a prosecutor by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in year one of the Obama administration. He was then recruited to serve in Minnesota by the Democrat United States Attorney Andrew Luger. In Minnesota he has run the white collar/public corruption team and commenced the Feeding Our Future investigation over four years ago under the Biden administration. Thompson has never been told what to do by a president of either party.
Anyone who has talked to him or heard him speak would conclude that Thompson has no allegiance to anything other than the facts. He has built his reputation as a dedicated public servant, a fierce but fair advocate, while establishing himself as one of the best federal prosecutors in the country.
Who ya gonna believe — Thompson or Walz? Thompson or the Star Tribune? You be the judge.
Minnesota fraud scandal — millions pulled from AUTISM CLINICS and Medicaid.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson says investigators uncovered “staggering amounts of money” stolen from the federal Child Nutrition Program — spent on cars, real estate, and even overseas — and that… pic.twitter.com/tUqbH4hmYC
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) December 20, 2025
