Overview
- The Oversight Committee convened its first public hearing on the Minnesota fraud investigation, with Chairman James Comer and Rep. Summer Lee engaging in a shouted exchange.
- Lee accused Republicans of cherry-picking Minnesota and targeting an immigrant community while citing Trump’s removal of 17 inspectors general, and Comer responded that inspectors general failed to detect fraud.
- Republicans pointed to investigator estimates that schemes tied to day care, medical, and food programs may have siphoned up to $9 billion, a scale Democrats challenged.
- Committee steps include requests for Treasury suspicious activity reports, a staff-level Justice Department briefing, and closed-door transcribed interviews with state officials.
- Witnesses included Minnesota GOP state Reps. Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson, and Marion Rarick, as well as questioning of former special counsel Brendan Ballou, and Comer invited Gov. Tim Walz and AG Keith Ellison to testify on Feb. 10.