It’s been a bad week for Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
A new video dropped by independent journalist Nick Shirley alleges more widespread fraud, primarily tied to the Somali community, in the Twin Cities related to sham transportation companies that were supposed to provide non-emergency medical transportation.
On top of that, a federal judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order to block U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the Twin Cities.
Both events happened on Wednesday, as violent rioters and lawless thugs took to the streets later that night to resist ICE with fireworks and coordinated assaults on law enforcement. The agitators destroyed federal vehicles and property, including stealing guns, ammunition and confidential records involving ICE operations.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump said that something big was coming and accused the state’s Democrats of using the deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis as a distraction from fraud in the state.
“Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
News also broke this week that Minnesota House Republicans plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Gov. Walz. According to the draft, “Timothy J. Walz has engaged in corrupt conduct in office by violating his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the laws of this state.”
Rep. Mike Wiener provided KMSP FOX 9 with impending articles of impeachment drafted by the Minnesota House Research Department. The resolution is said to be backed by 10 Republican lawmakers. The Minnesota Legislature’s 2026 session starts on Feb. 17, when it is expected to be introduced.
“The taxpayers have been frauded of an estimated $9 billion. They are demanding accountability of their elected officials,” Rep. Wiener told FOX 9. “No one is above the law, and our constitution gives us the tools to hold the governor accountable for ‘corrupt conduct.’”
Oh, and one more thing: There have been substantiated reports that Transportation Security Administration agents tracked millions of dollars in cash, carried by Somali couriers in luggage, leaving the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2024 and 2025.
One of those sources spoke to Shirley for his latest video, confirming that he worked narcotics cases at the airport and frequently reported that Somalis carried suitcases of cash as they flew from the Minneapolis airport to international destinations.
Although the fraud in Minnesota dates back a decade, new investigations allege Somali-owned companies received millions of taxpayer dollars to provide social services in the Twin Cities, but it was all a sham.
The accusations involve Somali-owned day cares not occupied by children—as seen in a viral video by YouTuber and independent journalist Nick Shirley that he released in late December.
In a new video posted on Wednesday, Shirley and Minneapolis resident David Hoch visited several locations that are supposed to be transportation companies.
Instead, they found convenience and liquor stores, wire transfer businesses and apartments. When the pair, accompanied by bodyguards, inquired about the transportation companies, they were harassed, threatened and ordered to leave by hostile Somalis and local residents.
Hoch has been investigating the fraud on his own for years. Several local news outlets, including TV station KSTP 5 Eyewitness News, have also conducted investigations into the fraudulent daycares as well as the cash-carrier Somali couriers flying out of the Minneapolis airport.
Shirley and Hoch have faced death threats since the videos and several news outlets have tried to discredit them, including CNN, calling Shirley a “MAGA journalist.” The Intercept ran a headline describing Hoch as a “right-wing lobbyist who called Muslims ‘demons.’”
Say what you will, but the 23-year-old hoodie-wearing Shirley, who remains polite and started out doing man-on-the-street videos prior to the election, is one of the few people who had the nerve to walk into the businesses and ask what’s going on.
By all indicators, if Walz and Frey weren’t in on the fraud, they at least knew about it and looked the other way. In Shirley’s follow-up video, he connects Frey to the owners of two of the reportedly fraudulent businesses, including the Quality Learing Center that misspelled learning on a sign.
Minnesota state employees have also provided evidence that could lead to the federal prosecution of Walz as well as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, said Minnesota Republican and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer.
The employees have aired grievances on an X account Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary and faced retaliation for alerting officials of the fraud. Emmer said they have offered sworn whistleblower testimony confirming that Walz knew about the massive Somali fraud schemes but failed to act.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson was one of at least six senior lawyers to leave the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota on Tuesday, according to the New York Times and other outlets.
Thompson has been described as a “career prosecutor” and was the lead U.S. attorney assigned to investigate and file charges in the sprawling social services fraud in Minnesota.
Frey and other Democrats praised the prosecutors who resigned as a valiant boycott against the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into the Renee Good shooting and Trump’s authoritarian regime.
“These prosecutors are heroes, and the people pushing to prosecute Renee’s widow are monsters,” Frey wrote on X. “In their pursuit of cruelty, the administration also just set back the work of fighting fraud by pushing out the prosecutors who were working on those cases.”
These prosecutors are heroes, and the people pushing to prosecute Renee's widow are monsters.
In their pursuit of cruelty, the administration also just set back the work of fighting fraud by pushing out the prosecutors who were working on those cases. https://t.co/uOV6nAsZgg
— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) January 13, 2026
Walz also came to the defense of Thompson after news of his resignation, calling him a “principled public servant” in a post on the social platform X.
“Joe is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans. This is a huge loss for our state,” Walz wrote on X with a link to the New York Times article. “It’s also the latest sign Trump is pushing nonpartisan career professionals out of the justice department, replacing them with his sycophants.”
Joe is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans. This is a huge loss for our state.
It’s also the latest sign Trump is pushing nonpartisan career professionals out of the justice department, replacing them with his sycophants.
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 13, 2026
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche shared Walz’s X post with his own commentary:
“Billions in taxpayer dollars wasted and flowing to foreign criminals, policies that protect criminal aliens over law-abiding citizens, ignoring federal law by releasing criminal alien murderers and pedophiles to MN neighborhoods,” Blanche wrote. “Encouraging lawlessness and violence against law enforcement. It is pretty clear the soon-to-be former Gov neither understands how the law works, nor what it means to be ‘nonpartisan.’”
Billions in taxpayer dollars wasted and flowing to foreign criminals, policies that protect criminal aliens over law-abiding citizens, ignoring federal law by releasing criminal alien murderers and pedophiles to MN neighborhoods. Encouraging lawlessness and violence against law… https://t.co/exxtK2dbma
— Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) January 14, 2026
Walz attempted to deflect away from the fraud scandal and turn up the heat on ICE, giving a televised address on Wednesday.
Walz used inflammatory rhetoric to encourage residents to film ICE agents and “help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans” shortly before rioters caused chaos on the streets—reminiscent of when they looted and burned businesses in 2020.
Earlier on Wednesday, a federal judge in Minneapolis declined to issue a temporary restraining order to block ICE operations, FOX 9 KMSP reported. Her ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed on Monday by Minnesota and Twin Cities officials to get ICE out of the city.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, a Biden appointee, ordered the Trump administration to formally respond to Minnesota’s complaint by Monday, Jan. 19 and said she would rule on the broader issues after that.
President Donald Trump praised the judge’s decision on his Truth Social platform, but then threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act over the violent protests in Minneapolis.
