Jonathan Turley explains why feds can dig deep into Somali scammer scandal
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Tuesday the scale of the reported welfare fraud in Minnesota could only occur with interstate commerce, which gives the federal government jurisdiction.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the agency already surged additional resources in a Sunday post on X, saying that the deployment occurred before a 42-minute video of independent journalist Nick Shirley visiting various Somali-run day care centers suspected of defrauding the state of millions of dollars went viral. Turley dismissed claims by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota that he lacked authority to pursue the fraud.
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“The surge of federal resources into Minnesota will help a great deal. You know, the fact is, you can’t have this extensive level of alleged fraud without interstate criminal activity,” Turley told “America’s Newsroon” guest co-host Bill Melugin. “Most of this is interstate. They are using wires and phones and they are transporting out of state. So the feds have a basis to go in there, in addition to the fact that some of this is playing with federal money.”
“You know, if Minnesota wants to burn billions, then do that if that’s what they want to do. But they can’t do that if it’s a federal crime, and they sure can’t do that with federal money,” Turley continued. “And when Governor Walz says, ‘Well, I’ve been trying to get more authority,’ fraud has been illegal for a long time and there have been some prosecutions in the past. This isn’t a lack of authority. This appears to be a lack of interest, impulse, a lack of effort by state regulators and prosecutors.”
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surged into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after the initial revelations involving at least $1 billion in fraud came to national attention. The total amount of fraudulent spending in Minnesota’s welfare programs could be as high as $9 billion, Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson said on Dec. 18, while whistleblowers in other states, including Maine and Ohio, have alleged that similar schemes by Somali scammers have taken place in those states and over 500 suspicious day-care centers are being probed in Washington state.
“We’ll see what the feds come up with here, but Minnesota is really looking at a mountain of hurt coming down on them because this is getting worse by the day,” Turley told Melugin.
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