Exclusive: Justice Department leadership pushed FBI to investigate campaign contributions to Minnesota officials

By Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — Top Justice Department officials pushed the FBI to investigate political campaigns in Minnesota over whether they illegally benefited from fraud in public service organizations, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions.

Some of the Justice Department’s interest, according to one of the sources, comes from a Washington Examiner report from earlier this month that said Gov. Tim Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar and other state politicians received campaign donations from people implicated in the Minnesota public benefits fraud scheme and community care providers.

The request came about two weeks ago from top lawyers working for Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. They asked the FBI to initiate investigations into whether money obtained illegally for organizations, such as food assistance charities and home health care centers, went to the campaigns, according to the source.

The public corruption section at the FBI told Blanche’s office that it is looking, but hasn’t yet found evidence of campaign wrongdoing.

The campaign finance probe, which is still being worked on, according to a source familiar with the discussions, hasn’t previously been reported.

 A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on any potential ongoing investigations.

Still, the requested investigation highlights the Trump administration’s efforts to target Democrats, and appears to be part of an ongoing effort to scrutinize and potentially make accusations about political leaders in Minnesota as civic unrest continues there.

The Justice Department has also subpoenaed at least five officials in Minnesota as part of a probe into whether the state and local leaders obstructed federal immigration enforcement efforts.

The officials include Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, CNN has reported.

A campaign finance probe that has the potential to touch elected officials in Minnesota — who are largely Democrats — comes at an extremely tense time between the state and the Trump administration. And the discussions about investigating campaign contributions in Minnesota took place in the days after a federal immigration officer shot and killed a woman in a car, Renee Good, prompting Walz and other Democrats in the state to publicly criticize the administration’s presence.

The Justice Department has for years been prosecuting cases in Minnesota related to government money being obtained by fraudulent public benefit schemes, including the non-profit Feeding Our Futures. And in the past few days, the department has escalated its attacks of Walz, in particular, by seeking information in a supposed criminal obstruction investigation related to recent protests, CNN previously reported.

President Donald Trump has suggested he may seek to send federal troops to Minneapolis by invoking the Insurrection Act, a little-used power of the presidency to quell civic unrest with military force, and Blanche has explicitly threatened Walz with legal retaliation.

Commenting on protests and ICE officer-involved shootings in Minneapolis, Blanche wrote on social media last week, “Walz and Frey – I’m focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It’s a promise.”

“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 also wrote on the social media platform X on Thursday morning. “It is pretty clear the soon-to-be former Gov neither understands how the law works, nor what it means to be ‘nonpartisan.’”

Prosecutors since the Biden administration have indicted almost 80 people linked to Feeding Our Future, which received federal funds to serve children meals during the Covid-19 pandemic in a sprawling grift. The Trump administration recently froze childcare payments to Minnesota, in an escalation against the state’s leadership and immigrant populations following viral videos alleging fraudulent Somali-run daycares.

It’s not unusual for federal investigators to jumpstart an investigation following a news report.

But a top-down approach beginning in Washington that directs the FBI to look into political campaigns is unusual, in both how the department historically has treated politically sensitive investigations, and how investigations typically originate from agents in the field and US attorney’s offices outside of Washington.

The involvement of Blanche’s office also indicates the interest of Trump administration political leadership in political campaigns that are in opposition to the president and his law enforcement tactics in Minnesota.

Donations from people linked to public benefits scams in Minnesota have gone to Walz, Omar and state Sen. Omar Fateh, a Somali American who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Minneapolis last year, according to state and federal campaign finance records.

The contributions stretch back years, and the totals amount to a small fraction of the resources required to wage their campaigns, sometimes drawing millions worth of fundraising and spending. Some of the money has been given up by the officials.

Between 2017 and 2022, Walz received more than $8,000 from five individuals connected to the now-viral benefits fraud investigations, Rep. Omar received $5,400 in 2021 from two others also linked to the case. The congresswoman donated that money back to three local food shelves, a person familiar with the situation told CNN.

Fateh, meanwhile, returned $11,000 worth of contributions to his state senate campaign from implicated individuals when the scandal first broke in 2022, and again in 2025 when another donor who gave $1,000 to his mayoral campaign was indicted.

Representatives for Walz, Omar and Fateh didn’t provide comment to CNN in response to requests this week.

Walz said on Tuesday the Justice Department “does not seek justice” with its recent investigative activity and instead is acting fully political, in a response to a separate investigation where the Justice Department is subpoenaing him for possible obstruction of federal officials related to the ongoing protests in the state.

The-CNN-Wire
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