Alex GriffingApr 28th, 2026, 5:38 pm

FBI Director Kash Patel duked it out with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Tuesday over who deserves credit for recent raids in the state aimed at combating government fraud.

“If you commit fraud in Minnesota you’re going to get caught — and that’s exactly what we saw today. We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” Walz announced in a post on social media on X, adding:

Today’s raids by state and federal law enforcement happened because our state agencies caught irregular behavior and reported it. That’s how the system is supposed to work, and our agencies will keep at it as long as there are fraudsters around to put behind bars.

Now let’s work on a joint investigation into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — instead of cherry picking when we seek justice and when we turn a blind eye.

Patel shared Walz’s post and added, “Come again? This FBI and DOJ with our DHS partners drafted and executed every search warrant today. But go ahead and take credit for our work while we smoke out the fraud plaguing Minnesota under your governorship.”

Earlier in the day, the FBI said it raided 22 Minnesota businesses as part of an effort to combat the alleged multi-billion dollar fraud scheme in the state, which has become a regular talking point of both President Donald Trump and the GOP.

While late last year the fraud scandal in Minnesota was grabbing headlines, many in the MAGA movement blamed both the Somali population in the state and the local Democrats. At the time, Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall pointed out to her colleagues that the fraud scandal in Minnesota had actually been going on for years, and the Biden DOJ had made dozens of arrests and secured key convictions in the years prior.

“Google it actually, local Minnesota news outlets have been reporting on this for years. Speaking of years, during the Biden administration, there were 59 people convicted so far. The ringleader is not Somalian. She’s a white woman named Aimee Bock. She was found guilty on all seven counts that were brought against her. So there are people that are already in prison. And remember, some of these are not DHS or federal-related facilities. Some of these facilities were closed down for other reasons, not even fraud,” Marshall said at the time.

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