Trump Admin To Send ‘Strike Teams’ Into Minnesota Amid Widening Fraud Probe
U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer testified before the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies on May 15, 2025, in Washington.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced plans for a targeted review of Minnesota’s unemployment insurance program amid increased scrutiny of fraud in the state’s human services programs, an issue that has gained political attention at the national level.
In a letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the department said recent news reports detailing fraud in Medicaid-funded human services programs could indicate potential fraud or abuse within the state’s unemployment benefits system.
“If there has been any related abuse of our (unemployment insurance) systems, it will not be tolerated, and I trust our specialized strike team to get to the bottom of this and report their findings directly to me,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a press release, per the Minnesota Reformer.
Also, Chavez-DeRemer told Fox Business on Monday that her agency was sending an unemployment insurance ‘strike team’ to Minnesota to widen the fraud probe.
“We’re going to send in a UI strike team to find out exactly what’s happening on the ground. We will NOT tolerate fraud under this administration,” she told host Stuart Varney.
A spokesperson for DEED stated that the agency consistently surpasses the federal Department of Labor’s standards for payment accuracy and maintains a fraud rate lower than the national average.
“We welcome the opportunity to illustrate the strength of our payment controls and oversight,” DEED said.
Chavez-DeRemer is the latest Trump administration official to focus on fraud in Minnesota in recent weeks after the issue drew the attention of President Trump.
Trump has publicly highlighted the background of defendants charged in the Feeding Our Future and Medicaid fraud cases, noting that many have Somali ancestry.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that his department is increasing scrutiny of funds flowing to what he described as “areas of concern, such as Somalia,” and is examining allegations that fraud proceeds have been routed to the militant group al-Shabaab, the Reformer noted.
The allegations, based on anonymous sources and published by a conservative media outlet, are not new and have not been supported by any federal charges related to terrorism financing.
Minnesota has shifted from being the land of 10,000 lakes to the land of billion-dollar frauds. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has faced mounting scrutiny as multiple large-scale fraud schemes have unfolded during his tenure.
Recent reports indicate Minnesota has suffered substantial taxpayer-funded fraud, much of it allegedly involving individuals within the state’s Somali community.
The state is still recovering from the fallout of the $250 million Feeding Our Future case, as new reporting from City Journal uncovered additional alleged fraud tied to Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program.
The report also noted accusations that millions from the scheme were funneled to the terror group Al Shabaab.
Investigators estimate the total fraud at roughly $1 billion across various public assistance programs.
Fox News reported the amount may ultimately be far higher. “Fraud investigators are finding in Minnesota is growing by the day,” Fox News National Correspondent Garrett Tenney reported.
“Kelly Loeffler, who leads the Small Business Administration, says in the two days her agency has been investigating the state, they’ve uncovered at least $1 million in PPP fraud.”
Tenney added that whistleblowers told lawmakers “they believe the total amount of fraud could total up to more than $8 billion.”
Walz has faced questions over accountability as he defended the state’s programs.
“And in spite of the headwinds we’re up against, Minnesota ranks economically, economic growth, happiness, number of people insured, education levels near the very top,” Walz said, pointing to a budget surplus that does not account for the alleged fraud losses.
"""My husband brought his mistress to our daughter’s wedding—and then asked me to give her my seat beside him.
"""My husband brought his mistress to our daughter’s wedding—and then asked me to give her my seat beside him. For a few seconds, I honestly thought I was looking at the wrong table, because my name card had vanished and Melissa’s was sitting exactly where mine had been on every seating chart. She wore a pale blue silk dress, lifted her champagne as if she belonged there, and avoided my eyes when I stopped beside the chair. David stood up, pointed to an empty seat at the next table, and quietly said, “For tonight, why don’t you sit over there?”
I had spent fourteen months helping our daughter, Emily, plan that wedding, from dress fittings and florist meetings to late-night calls over napkins and seating charts. That morning, while I fastened the pearl buttons on her gown, she made me promise I would enjoy the day and not let anything between her father and me touch it. I meant that promise, because whatever was left of my marriage, I would not make my daughter’s wedding the battlefield where it died. But David had apparently made a different plan, and he expected me to cooperate with it in silence.
When I asked what Melissa was doing there, David’s face showed guilt for only a second before he hid it behind irritation. He acted as though I were creating the problem simply by noticing that his mistress was seated at the family table in the place reserved for the bride’s mother. Then Melissa looked at me and said, “Honey, today really isn’t the day to make Emily uncomfortable.” I almost laughed, because the woman who had been sleeping with my husband for nearly a year was now warning me not to embarrass my own daughter.
I could feel people settling into nearby seats, laughing and talking, unaware that my marriage was being quietly rearranged in front of them. David kept his voice low and told me we should not “do this here,” as if the humiliation belonged to me because I refused to disappear politely. I looked at the empty chair he had chosen for me between a cousin and someone from the groom’s side, and I realized something colder than anger. This was not spontaneous; he had thought about where Melissa would sit, and he had assumed I would move.
For twenty-eight years, I had been the woman who adjusted, explained, forgave, and made excuses when David forgot anniversaries, missed dinners, or put work ahead of family. When he became distant, I learned to expect less instead of asking for more, and somewhere along the way he mistook that patience for permission. Even now, part of me considered taking the other chair, smiling for photographs, swallowing the humiliation, and telling myself it was all for Emily. I actually reached for the chair because protecting my daughter still mattered more to me than winning a public fight.
Then I heard one word behind me: “Mom?” Emily was walking toward us in her wedding dress, still glowing from the ceremony, and at first she looked confused rather than angry. Her eyes moved from me, to the empty chair, to Melissa, then back to the family table where she had personally placed me months ago. David quickly stepped in and announced that he had “rearranged a few things,” as if changing the bride’s seating chart without permission were no more serious than moving a centerpiece.
Emily asked why I was not sitting in my seat, and David casually pointed to the neighboring table and said I would be sitting “right there.” Her smile disappeared, and her eyes dropped to the place card in front of Melissa. I watched my daughter’s expression go completely still as she picked up that card and turned it over in her hand. In that instant, I understood the worst part: Emily had not approved this, and David had brought his mistress into our daughter’s wedding believing he could force everyone to accept what he wanted once it was already done.
What Emily did not know was that six months earlier, I had discovered David’s affair through a message that appeared on his phone while he was in the shower. Melissa had written, “I hate pretending I don’t miss you when she’s around,” followed by another message asking whether Friday was still theirs. When I confronted him, David spent eleven minutes calling me paranoid, insecure, dramatic, suspicious, and unfair before I repeated Melissa’s words exactly. The silence that followed ended our marriage long before either of us ever said the word divorce.
We had kept the details quiet because Emily was planning her wedding, and I refused to turn her happiest season into a crisis about us. David told me he was “confused,” that what he had with Melissa was “more complicated than an affair,” and that he needed time before making decisions. I agreed only that Emily’s wedding came first, so we slept in separate rooms, spoke carefully, and tried to appear functional while our marriage quietly collapsed. I believed David understood that one day required restraint, but he had apparently used that silence to prepare something else.
Three weeks before the wedding, he had casually asked whether Emily had finalized the family table and whether every seat had been assigned. At the time, I thought it was harmless conversation, but standing there with Melissa’s card in my daughter’s hand, I finally understood why he had asked. He had been checking whether there would be room, and when there was not, he simply removed me. Emily looked up at her father and asked, very quietly, “Where is Mom’s place card?”—and for the first time that night, David had no easy answer.
…FULL STORY IN THE COMMENT 👇👇👇"" "
