JD Vance Escalates Revenge on Minnesota With Criminal Referrals

Vice President JD Vance has referred Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation based on a wild conspiracy theory.

In a letter Monday to Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald at the DOJ’s Fraud Enforcement Division, Vance relayed allegations that Walz and Ellison had “repeatedly failed” to address fraud in Minnesota’s social services.

The allegations were sourced from a 205-page report published Monday by House Oversight Committee Republicans, who claimed that Walz and Ellison were aware of “credible, systemic fraud concerns” since as early as 2019, and that Walz’s administration went to “great lengths” to keep it quiet.

A closer look at the actual report found that those “great lengths” included regular “check-ins” and one Department of Health Services employee who brought up concerns of contract noncompliance, was found to be “disruptive,” and was placed on investigative leave.

In a letter to Vance sent alongside the report, House Oversight Chair James Comer urged the vice president’s team “to direct the appropriate executive branch agencies to conduct a thorough review of all of Minnesota’s social services program integrity measures, oversight processes, reimbursements, and enrollment from 2019 to the present.”

Vance shared his letter to social media, announcing that he’d passed the allegations onto the DOJ. “Minnesota state officials are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimated [sic] whistleblowers, they must face justice,” Trump’s “fraud czar” wrote.

But the right-wing fervor over fraud allegations in Minnesota is a fabrication designed to punish Democrats and antagonize immigrants. The claims stem from a video by Nick Shirley, a White House–favored propagandist, who tried to expose Somali immigrants for allegedly using childcare centers to steal public money. Despite uncovering no actual evidence of fraud, MAGA made his video go viral, and the feds followed soon after to Minneapolis. In reality, Minnesota has previously investigated and prosecuted improper payments to childcare services, as well as unrelated high-profile fraud prosecutions involving other Minnesota social services.

Ellison called the referral a “political stunt.”

“It is deeply troubling to see official powers and public resources diverted away from serving the people and instead aimed at pursuing political adversaries,” Ellison said in a statement. “That is not what government is for, and it diminishes public trust in our institutions.”

One of President Trump’s lawyers is being sued for millions of dollars over his role in an international spying scandal.

Ted Kittila, who used to work for Trump’s social media venture Truth Social, was sued in federal court for $120 million for alleged fraud, civil conspiracy, and extortion on behalf of agents of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, The Daily Beast reports.

According to court documents, the regional government was seeking to acquire surveillance software in the U.S. A Kurdish spy said that he was seeking to buy $11 million of surveillance equipment from a spyware contractor, Ben Jamil. But the spy alleged Jamil couldn’t prove the system worked, so he asked for his $360,000 deposit back, which Jamil refused. Then the spy hired Kittila to sue Jamil.

Jamil in turn sued the spy for $460 million in a separate action, and is seeking $120 million from everyone involved, including Kittila. He claims that Kittila and the others are using a criminal contempt motion, rare in a civil case, designed to stop him from discussing the case outside of court. He thinks that Kittila sought the order to spare the KRG and himself from embarrassment over the scandal.

“If he’s a prominent and important lawyer, connected to important people, why would he want to have the world know?” Kittila told The Daily Beast

Kittila has ties to Trump beyond Truth Social. He worked with Republican operatives to investigate the Biden family, and was employed by the Republican National Committee to sue the Delaware State Election Commissioner for access to voter rolls. For nearly three years, Kittila also worked for the KRG, which has been accused of human rights abuses, including violence against political opponents and journalists.

Kittila’s work on the spyware case came at the same time he helped Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee investigate President Biden and his son Hunter for the latter’s business deals, which allegedly involved foreign influence peddling. Now it seems that his own foreign business dealings are in the spotlight.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli—who oversees 500 attorneys—went on The Glenn Beck Program on Monday to beg listeners to help him find evidence of election fraud.

“Tell me what credible allegations exist that warrant a formal federal investigation [in California],” Beck asked Essayli.

“Number one, election fraud is not a theory. It is a real thing. Election fraud happens every year,” Essayli replied. “California is a fraudster’s paradise.… Almost anybody can register to vote in the state of California. You don’t have to have a Social Security number, and you don’t need a driver’s license number.… Then California has done universal vote-by-mail, which means if you’re on the voter rolls, you’re gonna get one mailed to you whether you want it or not.

“They put millions of ballots out into the mail, into the ether. The voter rolls are dirty.… Dead people, people who’ve moved, convicted felons, are also receiving ballots,” he continued, before criticizing “ballot harvesting,” a basic ballot collection method practiced by both Democrats and Republicans in California. “I expect people will be charged.… We have set up a tipline. I’ve set up a dedicated email.… We are looking for any sort of widescale conspiracy, if you will.” He then told Beck that election fraud charges would be coming in “one to two months.”

“If anyone knows anything … if you’ve witnessed anything … if you saw someone collecting ballots in a suspicious way, or doing something odd with ballots, we wanna know about that.”

Essayli railed against voter registration methods designed to increase access and participation, presented zero actual evidence of voter fraud, and then invited an infamously fanatical MAGA public to deputize themselves and go after the fraud that only exists because their guy lost in L.A.’s mayoral race. This election fraud script is the Trump administration’s favorite play. It’ll only come up more as midterms approach, as Trump and Vice President JD Vance have already spread baseless claims of election fraud in California.

Asked whether he thought the Los Angeles mayoral election was rigged, House Speaker Mike Johnson did what he does best: steer away from facts and embrace nebulous speculation.

“I’m not saying it’s rigged, I’m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that,” Johnson said to a gaggle of reporters Monday evening. “Let’s remove the appearance of impropriety—what a concept. Let’s have votes on an election the day of the election.”

CNN correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson what evidence there was to support his vague complaints. Unsurprisingly, the Louisiana politician couldn’t provide a whiff of it.

“Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it’s impossible to prove,” Johnson said. “But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here.”

The incumbent mayor of Los Angeles, Democrat Karen Bass, advanced to the general election with 34.3 percent of the vote on Monday. A progressive Democrat, Nithya Raman, beat Republican Spencer Pratt for second place, with 28.5 to 25.8 percent. Raman will now take on Bass in the general election, in a leftist-versus-moderate clash similar to last year’s New York City mayoral race.

The battle between Raman and Pratt is what Johnson was moaning about. Pratt, a former reality-TV personality, led early on Monday before Raman took the lead as more mail-in ballots were processed.

Pratt offered some typically Trumpian fearmongering by alleging that the homeless were illegally voting for Raman. The president himself also claimed, again without evidence, that the vote was “crooked.” Even longtime Republican legislators like House Majority Leader Steve Scalise are baselessly insinuating voter fraud.

It is strange that Republicans are unable to accept that they lost a mayoral race in one of the bluest cities in the country. Then again, this is the party whose leader attempted to stage a coup after losing a presidential election, who kicked off a mid-decade gerrymandering war in order to consolidate power, and whose disciples have literally tampered with voting machines in order to hijack elections. With the GOP desperate to cling to power, and lacking the morality to accept defeat, the midterms should be a ball.

President Donald Trump shut down Midtown Manhattan Monday so he could take a nap at the NBA Finals.

After getting loudly booed by attendees at Madison Square Garden, Trump was spotted snoozing in his box seats next to Knicks owner James Dolan and his granddaughter Kai Trump.

It seems that a tense Game 3 between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs wasn’t enough to pique the president’s interest. It’s not particularly surprising, considering that Trump has repeatedly been seen dozing off during press conferences, bill signings, and Cabinet meetings, among other apparent instances of cognitive decline.

Trump’s nap came amid his highly disruptive trip to Midtown at the taxpayer’s expense and New Yorkers’ apparent dismay.

Authorities closed 10 blocks around Madison Square Garden to traffic and pedestrians ahead of Trump’s arrival. The Secret Service and TSA, along with the NYPD, heightened security protocols at MSG. Attendees were forced to arrive hours early, and without any bags. And perhaps worst of all, the New York Knicks were forced to cancel their rambunctious watch party outside the stadium.

Clearly the vibes were off: The Knicks lost by four points, ending a 13-game winning streak.