Linda McMahon calls for Tim Walz to resign over Minnesota fraud scandal

FIRST ON FOX: In a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday, Trump’s education secretary criticized his handling of the state’s massive and evolving fraud crisis and highlighted allegations of fraud in the state’s college education system, calling on him to resign from his post over the scandal.

“You have been the Governor of Minnesota since 2019,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote to Walz in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “During this time, your reckless lack of oversight and abuse of the welfare system has allowed fraudsters from around the world, particularly from Somalia, to establish a criminal hotspot in our country. In the words of President Trump, you have turned Minnesota into a ‘fraudulent epicenter of money laundering activities.'”

At the end of the scathing letter, McMahon calls on Walz to resign over the scandal.

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“Given your dereliction of the duty entrusted to you by Minnesotans, I implore you to resign and make way for more capable leadership,” McMahon writes.

In addition fake scandal McMahon’s letter focuses on findings from his department that show fraud in Minnesota’s college education system, with nonprofits like Feeding Our Future allegedly defrauding taxpayers of at least $1 billion under Walz’s watch, making national headlines, especially in the Somali community.

Last week, Fox News Digital reported The Department of Education announced it prevented more than $1 billion in student aid fraud during Trump’s first year in office, including stopping suspicious bots and “ghost students” from receiving taxpayer-funded loans.

One of the alleged “ghost student” schemes taking place in Minnesota has left Riverland Community College with an average of more than 100 potentially fraudulent applications per year, Fox News Digital reports.

In his letter to Walz, McMahon focused on potential fraud in that part of his state and said there were approximately 2,000 “ghost” students.

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“We call these scammers ‘ghost students’ because their identities are not verified and most of the time they do not live in the United States or simply do not exist,” McMahon wrote. “It was revealed that 1,834 ghost students in Minnesota received $12.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants and loans. They collected checks from the federal government, split a small portion of the money with the university, and pocketed the rest without ever going to college.”

The letter mentions the ministry’s efforts to crack down on “ghost students” across the country, including “mandatory identity verification” for some first-time applicants.

The letter also targets Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar. extremely criticized He said he borrowed “tens of thousands” in student loans because of his close ties to some of the people involved in the fraud scandal and “despite his generous taxpayer-funded salary, he no longer feels he should pay it back.”

Last month, a conservative watchdog group called on GOP Speaker Mike Johnson to garnish congressional wages over Omar’s student loan debt, citing her $174,000 annual salary. Alpha News reported.

The letter alleges that Omar “took advantage” of the federal taxpayer.

The letter goes on to accuse Walz of presiding over what federal officials describe as a “massive welfare fraud scandal” that has spanned nearly every major federal aid program. According to the letter, scammers operating in Minnesota have enriched themselves by taking advantage of federal housing assistance, education benefits, food stamps, small business assistance and even programs aimed at supporting older Americans and children with autism, while the governor has done “absolutely nothing” to stop it.

“Shame on you, Governor Walz, for allowing this to happen and taking advantage of it,” McMahon wrote to Walz. “Stop defrauding American taxpayers. No politician is above the law, and my department, along with every other agency led by President Trump, will continue to ensure that you cannot escape responsibility for your actions.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Walz’s office for comment.

A GRAPHIC SHOWS THE COMMON FRAUD NETWORK MISSED BY MINNESOTA OFFICIALS

Linda McMahon, US secretary of education. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

At a news conference Friday, Walz announced he was establishing a new statewide prevention program that will work with a private firm that specializes in forensic auditing.

Walz said the system was “exploited by an organized group of fraudsters and criminals.”

“I take full responsibility for this,” Walz said. “I think, and I will certainly admit to Minnesotans and the press here, that I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job of communicating the hard work that’s been done.”

Walz’s comments did not appear to appease critics in the state, including conservative commentator Dustin Gage, who told Fox News Digital after the press conference that no one in a position of power had been fired, raising the question among some of whether accountability had actually been taken.

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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

“He made a quote that said, ‘Hey, I’m going to take responsibility and people are going to run with that quote,’” Townhall.com columnist Grage told Fox News Digital. “But ultimately not a single bureaucrat has been impeached for fraud in this state. “Not a single person was dismissed.”

“So that ultimately means, at the end of the day, if he’s guilty, he’s the only one who should be held accountable at this point, because he hasn’t demonstrated in any actionable way that a government employee is guilty at this point. He put the blame on himself, and no one got fired. So, at the end of the day, Minnesotans, the voters of this state, are going to have to make a decision.”

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.