The campaign Minnesota desperately needs, Part VII

Saying that the DFL's Medicaid fraud scandal is this year's biggest political story of 2025-26 isn't overstatement. This KSTP article explores a new aspect to this fiasco. KSTP's Kirsten Swanson reports that "The praise rolled in for the team working on Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program. Launched in 2020, it was designed to help people with disabilities, seniors and individuals struggling with mental illness and substance abuse find and keep housing. But in just five years, demand for the Medicaid-reimbursed service had created a backlog within the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS). Employees working on the program were lauded for working overtime to clear it."

Ms. Swanson then reported that "To reward their efforts, DHS paid bonuses to nine program staff and eligibility specialists, ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, according to data obtained by 5 INVESTIGATES. Three months later, the program collapsed." This was 1 of 14 programs designated as high-risk that the Walz administration shut down while downplaying the fraud crisis to the public. This KSTPINVESTIGATES report:

says that Minnesota's Department of Human Services paid 9 people bonuses "in May, 2025." Just 3 months after these bonuses were paid out, though, former Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson is quoted as saying "The level of fraud in these programs is staggering." According to the report's timestamp, the date of that statement was Sept. 18, 2025. Another report, this one dated Aug. 1, 2025, announced that "the State of Minnesota is shutting down the Housing Stabilization Services program."

Putting that timeline together means that Gov. Walz must've signed off on the bonuses at the same time he denied knowing the program was in difficulty. I've heard of plausible deniability before but that's stretching things.

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