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As Minnesota’s massive welfare fraud scandal continues to widen, new details are emerging about how the scheme was allowed to grow into one of the largest taxpayer theft operations in U.S. history.

According to Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), state officials effectively admitted they refused to act because it would hurt the Democrats’ political interests.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Kennedy read from an internal memo written by a fraud investigator inside Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office.

The document directly identifies political fear, not investigative difficulty, as the primary reason state authorities avoided confronting the sprawling crimes.

“Here’s what a fraud investigator in the Attorney General’s office said,” Kennedy told colleagues.

“She said, ‘There is a perception that I’m quoting now, that forcefully tackling this issue would cause political backlash from the Somali community, which is a core voting block for Democrats.’” ...

“Seventy-nine percent of registered voters in Minnesota think fraud in state programs is either the biggest or a major problem in their state, and just 14 percent think Gov. Tim Walz did enough to stop the fraud, according to a Monday KSTP and Survey USA poll.”

In total, 92% of Minnesotans surveyed said the fraud is a problem.

Twenty-five percent called it the biggest problem in the state, 54 percent called it a major problem, and only 13 percent said it was a minor issue. ...

Investigators say the fraud was not limited to one operation but spread across multiple Somali-run networks that exploited federal nutrition funds with virtually no state oversight.

Feeding Our Future and Beyond: Total Losses Could Surpass $2 Billion

Aimee Bock, founder of Feeding Our Future, and restaurant owner Salim Said were found guilty for their roles in the fraud scheme, which prosecutors say funded luxury homes, cars, and extravagant lifestyles.

Prosecutors said the pair claimed to have served 91 million meals, fraudulently collecting nearly $250 million in federal taxpayer funds that were meant to feed children.

Teirab said Feeding Our Future was only part of the picture.

Another nonprofit, Partners in Nutrition (also known as Partners in Quality Care), has also been identified in the scandal.

When adding alleged fraud from Feeding Our Future, Partners in Quality Care, HSS, and other programs, losses exceed $1 billion, and the total could surpass $2 billion, according to Teirab and former acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson.