WASHIGTION — Vice President JD Vance is pressing for federal indictments of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison. Vance blames the governor and the attorney general for fraudulent claims that were filed by private entities for federal funding. Vance’s move was the latest in a Trump campaign against Minnesota, which the President regards as politically unfriendly. Trump has been especially antagonistic to Minnesota since massive citizen resistance to his Operation Metro Surge over the winter. The resistance humiliated Trump, who found himself forced to call back 3,000 troops he had sent to occupy the state under false premises of rampant lawlessness.
Vance back story
Trump created an ad hoc group that he called the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. That was in March. He put Vance in charge. Meanwhile, the Trump-controlled U.S. House Oversight Committee began investigating thefts of federal funds in Minnesota based on a You Tube video by an independent journalist recruited from Utah. The video purported that child care operators were taking federal money for services that were not provided. On Sunday the House Oversight Committee recommended to Vance that he authorize a U.S. Justice Department investigation. Vance did so within 24 hours. To a new Trump-created DOJ Fraud Division for criminal investigation, Vance said: “Minnesota state officials are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimidated whistle-blowers, they must face justice.” Vance offered no evidence to support this suggestion that Walz oand Ellison were knowledgeable or complicit in the fraud.
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