Tim Walz thought all of his troubles were coming to an end.
He was dead wrong.
And Tim Walz dropped out and then got the worst news of his life.
Kamala Harris's 2024 running mate tried to pull off one of the great political escape acts by bowing out of the Minnesota governor's race.
That plan lasted about five minutes before reality hit him square in the face.
Republicans block Walz's escape plan with one brutal demand
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer made it crystal clear Walz won't be slinking off into the sunset.
"Though Tim Walz is not running for governor again, he cannot run from accountability," Comer said. "The House Oversight Committee demands that he appear for a public hearing on February 10 to expose this fraud and begin the process of accountability. The American people deserve answers, and they deserve them now."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dropped an even bigger bombshell during her appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime.
President Donald Trump believes Walz is "criminally liable" for the fraud tsunami that turned Minnesota into what Leavitt called "the land of 10,000 Somali schemes."
"This is all hands on deck, rest assured. It's a top priority for President Trump," Leavitt told Watters. "He believes that Governor Walz is criminally liable, and I think the Department of Justice is going to find out."
That's not campaign rhetoric from a political opponent.
That's the White House press secretary telegraphing that criminal charges could be coming for a man who stood on stage as the Democrat nominee for Vice President.
The Department of Justice has already charged 98 defendants in Minnesota fraud cases, with 64 convictions secured.¹
But the Trump Administration clearly thinks the fish they really want hasn't been netted yet.
Federal agencies descend on Minnesota in coordinated assault
The scope of fraud Walz allegedly ignored is staggering.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said at a December press conference that "half or more" of the $18 billion billed to 14 programs under Minnesota's Department of Human Services since 2018 could be fraudulent.²
That's not a few million slipping through the cracks.
That's potentially $9 billion in taxpayer money stolen through schemes involving child care centers, autism services, housing assistance, and the massive Feeding Our Future nonprofit scandal that prosecutors called the "largest pandemic fraud in the United States."³
The Trump Administration isn't treating this like your typical state-level corruption case.
The Department of Homeland Security deployed up to 2,000 immigration and investigative personnel to Minneapolis. The FBI launched door-to-door investigations.
The Department of Health and Human Services froze all federal child care payments to the entire state. The Treasury Department started investigating whether Minnesota tax dollars ended up funding al-Shabaab, the Somali terrorist organization.⁴
This is the full weight of the federal government coming down on one state.
And Walz thought announcing he wouldn't run for reelection would make it all go away.
Walz's defenses collapse under scrutiny
Minnesota state lawmakers warned Walz for years about fraud red flags in social services programs.
Republican State Representative Kristin Robbins will testify before the House Oversight Committee about how her warnings to the Walz administration went ignored.
"He has turned a blind eye for so long to the fraud," Robbins told reporters.⁵
Walz keeps claiming his administration caught the fraud early and moved aggressively to stop it.
The timeline tells a different story.
Federal prosecutors charged the first defendants in the Feeding Our Future scheme back in 2022 after the nonprofit defrauded the Federal Child Nutrition Program of more than $250 million. Minnesota officials saw early warning signs of fraud within Feeding Our Future but didn't intervene.⁶
Whistleblowers inside the Minnesota Department of Human Services alleged the agency deleted data and withheld records to cover up the fraud.⁷
Walz appointed a new director of program integrity in December — just weeks before announcing he wouldn't seek reelection.
He waited until the Trump Administration threatened to cut off federal funding before taking action.
And now Walz wants credit for cleaning up a mess he helped create and then tried to hide.
The February 10 congressional testimony won't be some friendly chat where Walz explains his side of the story.
It's going to be Republicans presenting evidence of his administration's failures and potential criminality before a national television audience.
Walz can run for the governor’s race.
He can't hide from happened under his watch.
¹ Karoline Leavitt, interview, Jesse Watters Primetime, Fox News, January 5, 2026.
² Joseph Thompson, press conference, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota, December 2025.
³ U.S. Department of Justice, press release, 2022.
⁴ U.S. Department of the Treasury, statement on al-Shabaab investigation, January 2026.
⁵ Kristin Robbins, quoted in The Hill, "Minnesota Rep. claims Gov. Tim Walz ignores fraud issue," December 30, 2025.
⁶ House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, "Comer Expands Investigation Into Widespread Fraud Uncovered in Minnesota Government Programs," December 22, 2025.
⁷ Ibid.
