Barry Moore, Nick Shirley Discuss Minnesota Fraud in Hearing

A House Judiciary Committee subpanel took up the issue of alleged fraud in federally funded Minnesota programs on Wednesday, pressing witnesses on how billions in taxpayer dollars could have been misused and whether political decisions weakened oversight. The hearing, held by the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, was titled “When Public Funds Are Abused: Addressing Fraud and the Theft of Taxpayer Dollars.”

Representative Barry Moore (R-AL-1), a member of the subcommittee, challenged witnesses on how fraud persisted despite regular audits. “And you went through a number of audits, I think every year, right? Every year. So, how’s it that these groups are getting away with it?” Moore asked, suggesting that politics may have affected enforcement. “Either there’s a double standard… or they’re just, maybe Chairman (Jim) Jordan was on to something, maybe it’s politics.”

The session drew attention to long-running concerns about oversight in Minnesota’s social services programs. Republican lawmakers and witnesses highlighted findings that suggest organized fraud schemes dating back years, with an estimated $9 billion in public funds lost through false claims across programs including child care, nutrition, Medicaid and housing supports.

Witnesses included independent investigators and specialists who have tracked fraud patterns in the state. One prominent testimony came from Nick Shirley, a content creator whose reporting helped spark national interest in alleged fraud networks in Minnesota.

Moore's exchange with Shirley was as follows:

Rep. Moore:

Mr. Shirley. Now, I guess investigative journalists are known as right wing social media influencers. So, can you confirm how many daycare centers you personally visited in Minnesota during your investigation?

Mr. Shirley:

During that first video we went to around seven.

Rep. Moore:

How did you select those facilities? I know you said earlier footprints in the snow, but how was it that you identified those facilities to go to initially?

Mr. Shirley

So the man, David in the video, he had the daycares with the CCAP funding, and we just simply drove around Minnesota and around the Minneapolis area.

Rep. Moore:

Took a lot of courage to do that, I would imagine, probably more so now than what it was when you initially did it. 100 million views, you said? (On Shirley’s video exposing the fraud)

Mr. Shirley:

Yes, over 140 million views on x.

Rep. Moore:

So what was Mr. David's background? How did you connect with him? And how did he call you, or did you reach out?

Mr. Shirley:

He simply is just a man in Minnesota who has a passion for his city, and he's been seeing fraud taking place for years. And out of all the 1000s of messages I get on Instagram and other platforms, I just happened to read his, and he provided me the information, so I gave him phone call, and then from there, just went to those different facilities.

Mr. Moore:

What was probably the most interesting thing, as you were doing this, I think I saw the video. We watched it, and it looked like it was a number of facilities like in the same building?

Mr. Shirley:

Yes. So in one building, there was, I believe, three day cares, and there was no children, and they were all receiving CCAP funding for separate day cares. There's one day care we went to that one day it was closed by the government, and then that same day was reopened underneath another name. They both received CCAP funding, I bet.

While this hearing focused on federal oversight, another related congressional panel has held separate sessions on the issue. That House Oversight Committee hearing in early January drew testimony from Minnesota state lawmakers who said previous warnings about fraud were ignored by the Walz administration and that whistleblowers faced retaliation.

At this stage, the federal investigation into the breadth of fraud and policy decisions driving oversight remains ongoing, with lawmakers continuing to debate both the scope of the fraud and the State’s response.

Rep. Moore's portion of the hearing (low resolution) is below:

The full hearing at high resolution, with Rep. Moore’s segment beginning at ~1:33:00 is available on YouTube at THIS LINK.