Minnesota was just the beginning of the Somali welfare fraud scandal.
These fraudsters are being exposed all around the country.
And the Washington State AG made one bone-chilling threat to journalists exposing Somali fraud.
AG threatens fraud investigators with hate crime charges
YouTuber Nick Shirley dropped a bombshell showing empty Somali Minnesota daycares pulling in millions in taxpayer funds.¹
His 42-minute video hit 131 million views on X.
Independent journalists immediately started checking their own states.
Journalists Jonathan Choe and Cam Higby visited Somali daycares in Washington state last week and found identical patterns.²
Houses listed as licensed facilities with zero signs of children.
One location collected over $863,000 since 2023. Another received over $210,000 just this year.³
Residents said no daycare ever operated at either address.
Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown watched this unfold and threatened the journalists instead of investigating fraud.
"My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking," Brown posted on X.⁴
Then came the threat that has Trump's DOJ seeing red.
"Showing up on someone's porch, threatening, or harassing them isn't an investigation," Brown declared. "Neither is filming minors who may be in the home."
He told Somali community members to call police or his Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline to report journalists.⁵
Translation: investigate fraud, get charged with a hate crime.
Trump's DOJ drops the hammer on Washington AG
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wasn't about to let that slide.
"ANY state official who chills or threatens to chill a journalist's 1A rights will have some 'splainin to do," Dhillon fired back. "[The DOJ Civil Rights Division] takes potential violations of 18 USC § 242 seriously! Govern yourselves accordingly!"⁶
That law makes it a federal crime for government officials to violate constitutional rights with a maximum penalty of one year in federal prison.⁷
Brown tried deflecting — "Not sure how you square your newfound concern for journalists with working for Donald Trump. We quite obviously haven't threatened anyone."⁸
Dhillon destroyed him.
"I'm a former journalist. Deep staters like you are always threatened by a free press. But thank you for confirming that journalists are free to ply their craft and expose the fraud you have failed to identify, much less punish, in your state!"⁹
Andy Ngo piled on — "It is the duty of journalists to visit taxpayer-funded nonprofits and businesses to investigate where you have failed. You are trying to threaten journalists by telling people to call police with false allegations of a hate crime."¹⁰
Brown got caught weaponizing hate crime laws against the press.
But the Democrat machine in Washington had a backup plan already in motion.
Democrats coordinate cover-up before scandal breaks
State Senator Lisa Wellman moved first.
Four days before Shirley's video went viral, she pre-filed Senate Bill 5926 on December 22.¹¹
The legislation expands public records exemptions to hide every licensed daycare operator from scrutiny — names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, bank accounts.¹²
Right now only home-based providers get privacy protections because they operate from private residences.
Wellman wants to extend those same protections to every facility statewide.
That would make it impossible for journalists to verify whether daycares receiving taxpayer funds actually exist.
Wellman represents Bellevue and Mercer Island — one of Washington's largest Somali populations — and chairs the Early Learning & K12 Education Committee overseeing the system under investigation.¹³
Her spokesman claimed "privacy and safety concerns" drove the bill.¹⁴
Nobody's buying it.
The Democrat machine saw Nick Shirley expose Minnesota fraud using public records.
Their response was coordinated and immediate.
The AG threatens journalists with hate crimes.
The State Senator seals the records so nobody can investigate.
It's a two-pronged attack to bury the scandal before it explodes.
The fraud Democrats are desperate to hide
Federal prosecutors estimate Minnesota fraud hit $9 billion since 2018.¹⁵
Trump already froze all federal daycare funding to Minnesota.¹⁶
Eighty-two of 92 defendants in one Medicare/Medicaid fraud case were Somali-Americans.¹⁷
Dozens more were charged in the Feeding Our Future scandal for stealing hundreds of millions from COVID child nutrition programs.
Washington journalists are finding identical patterns.
The Democrat machine wants to bury this scandal in Washington before it explodes — the AG threatens hate crime charges while the Senator seals public records.
Democrats know what investigators will find — the same $9 billion fraud scheme that destroyed Minnesota.
That's why they're weaponizing hate crime laws and destroying press freedom to cover it up.
¹ Nick Shirley, "I Investigated Minnesota's Billion Dollar Fraud Scandal," YouTube, December 26, 2025.
² The Post Millennial, "Dem lawmaker moves to conceal WA state daycare provider info amid Somali fraud allegations," December 31, 2025.
³ Cam Higby, X post, December 30, 2025.
⁴ Attorney General Nick Brown, X post, December 31, 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Harmeet Dhillon, X post, December 31, 2025.
⁷ Legal Information Institute, "18 U.S. Code § 242 – Deprivation of rights under color of law," Cornell Law School.
⁸ Attorney General Nick Brown, X post, December 31, 2025.
⁹ Harmeet Dhillon, X post, December 31, 2025.
¹⁰ Andy Ngo, X post, December 31, 2025.
¹¹ Washington State Legislature, "Senate Bill 5926," December 22, 2025.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ Conservative Firing Line, "Washington State Democrat Senator Files Legislation to Hide Possible Daycare Fraud," December 31, 2025.
¹⁴ The Center Square, "Controversy, debate intensifies regarding WA child care center fraud allegations," December 31, 2025.
¹⁵ CBS News, "Everything we know about Minnesota's massive fraud schemes," January 1, 2026.
¹⁶ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, statement, December 31, 2025.
¹⁷ CBS News, January 1, 2026.
