Walz Faces Authorized Perils Over Nationwide Guard Remark, Somali Fraud Scandal
Minnesota’s far-left Democratic Governor Tim Walz faces potential legal trouble on two counts.
He not only presided over the burgeoning Somali fraud scandal in Minneapolis, but also threatened to dispatch the state’s National Guard to fight Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after an agent’s fatal shooting of a woman who tried to run over him during an enforcement operation.
Angry Republicans want Walz charged under the Insurrection Act, and Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida has referred him and far-left Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Justice Department for prosecution in connection with the fraud scandals.
Walz War Threat
As JP reported earlier today, after the shooting, Walz twice claimed the state was at war with the federal government, and strongly suggested that Guardsmen will fight ICE agents.
“I don’t think any governor in history has had to fight a war against the federal government,” he said, apparently forgetting the War Between the States. “We’ve never been at war with our federal government.”
And “rogue” ICE agents, he said, might face a fight with the Guard:
My primary responsibility as governor is the protection of the people of Minnesota, and you can be assured whether it’s the State Patrol, or whether it’s the National Guard, their deployment is there to protect Minnesotans from whatever it is — if it’s an act of nature, if it’s a global pandemic, or in this case, if it is a rogue federal agent.
GOP Responses
The sound bites didn’t go over well.
“A sitting governor threatening to deploy the National Guard against federal law enforcement is an open act of defiance,” Representative Mary Miller of Illinois wrote over a screenshot of a Fox News story:
The Insurrection Act exists for moments exactly like this.
Arrest Tim Walz.
Yesterday, Miller urged President Trump to “invoke the Insurrection Act.”
Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina agreed:
Tim Walz is preparing to deploy the Minnesota National Guard against federal agents.
Someone remind him: Donald Trump is Commander in Chief. And federal authority supersedes state authority. That’s not opinion, that’s the Constitution.
What Walz is threatening has a name: insurrection.
Mr. President, the law is on your side. Use it.
18 U.S. Code 2383 is clear: Those who incite insurrection against the federal government face 10 years in prison:
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
10 U.S. Code 253 says the president “shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it … opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States.”
The law also permits the president to federalize the Guard.
Fraud Referral
Luna’s referral of Walz and Ellison to DOJ for prosecution followed hearings of the House Oversight Committee about the myriad Somali fraud scandals in Minnesota. Elected officials testified that Walz and Ellison knew about the fraud and did nothing about it. Ellison is on tape with convicted Somali fraudsters who sought his help, in exchange for campaign donations, to collect government handouts.
“I have enough evidence to believe both @GovTimWalz and @keithellison were knowingly complicit in a Somali fraud scheme in Minnesota,” Luna wrote on X yesterday.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Luna accused Walz and Ellison of conspiracy to defraud the federal government.
Quoting Walz, who said the fraud occurred “on my watch” and “I’m accountable for this,” Luna alleged that “state agencies or affiliated actors may have engaged in coordinated conduct that impaired federal oversight and allowed misuse of federal resources to persist.”
As well, Luna continued, “there are indications that senior leadership within the state government was aware of these issues and nevertheless permitted the conduct to continue without meaningful intervention.”
If those allegations are true, the actions would “constitute an agreement to obstruct or defeat lawful federal functions, as well as knowing facilitation or willful disregard of federal offenses committed by subordinates,” she continued:
Where a chief executive knowingly enables, directs, or permits conduct that interferes with federal oversight or deliberately ignores clear warning signs of misconduct involving federal funds criminal liability may attach under federal law.
Luna’s letter appears below. In it, she cited two federal laws, 18 U.S. Code 371, which criminalizes conspiracy against the United States, and 18 U.S. Code 2, which criminalizes aiding and abetting.
Out of the Race
Whatever the outcome of Luna’s referral, and however “accountable” Walz claims to be, he won’t be the “one that will fix it.”
The fraud scandal forced Walz to drop out of the 2026 race for governor. The top contender is far-left Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who, if victorious, might appoint Walz to her vacant senate seat.
Though Walz admitted that an “organized gang of criminals” committed the fraud right under his nose, he still blamed bad Republicans who are “playing politics with the future of our state.”
