Chaos in Minnesota
Plus: The ICE shooting of Renee Good and saying farewell to Scott Adams
The situation in Minneapolis is heating up. I just returned from the city, having spoken at an event in which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent uncovered new details about the Somali fraud scams.
Flanked by local leaders, journalists, and concerned citizens, Bessent announced further investigations into the Somali fraudsters and the flow of funds out of the country, some of which—as Ryan Thorpe and I have documented—ends up in the hands of the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
One of the most interesting things I learned from Bessent was that federal investigators are starting to look at Minnesota’s politicians and their relationship to Somali fraud. This is crucial because everyone on the ground in Minnesota, from state legislators to citizen observers, told me it was an “open secret” that politicians knew this was happening. They were, at a minimum, complicit in the fraud.
According to the state legislature’s fraud committee, whistleblowers have been filing reports since 2019, raising questions about impossible financial statements and about the Somali fraud schemes that penetrated these programs. These complaints were suppressed; whistleblowers were turned away, and some faced retaliation. In our interview, Bessent spoke of “disturbing tapes” of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in meetings with political donors who asked for fraud investigations to be halted.
The real question is: Were these politicians going along with this for votes as an implicit quid pro quo? Or were they doing it for more nefarious reasons? Was there a dirty deal of some sort?
To be clear, the evidence we’ve uncovered so far suggests a mixture of stupidity and complicity, but there certainly is the possibility of conspiracy. During the event, Bessent announced that his department would soon release funds for bounties to try to get some Somali fraudsters to turn in their compatriots and, potentially, turn in Minnesota politicians.
The trap has been set. And now, we aren’t the only reporters looking around.
