Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Friday at the White House Fraud Task Force press conference in Minnesota that the federal government had “asked Minnesota to revalidate all of the high-risk providers” of Medicaid. He reported, “Almost one in three of all the people providing services in Minnesota could not be revalidated.”
Oz added, “That degree of fraud, again, you have to purposely be averting your glance to allow that to happen.”
[NOTE: Minnesota says many providers failed revalidation because of incomplete applications, and some have appealed. Failure to revalidate does not itself establish fraud.]
Oz was joined by FBI Director Kash Patel, who reported that 81 people have been charged and 70 convicted, with more than $533 million in combined restitution, related to the Feeding Our Future case. “The fraudsters thought they could steal from American taxpayers and get away with it,” Patel said. “Not anymore.”
[NOTE: Though that case is not directly related to Medicaid, this week Minneapolis restaurant operator Salim Said was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in a scheme that fraudulently sought reimbursement for meals through Feeding Our Future. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel told Said: “You took the reputation of our state down with you.”]
Gov. Tim Walz criticized the Trump administration after it withheld more than $240 million in Medicaid funding in March, saying “the people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who’s running to replace Walz as governor, has said that if elected, “On Day 1, I will begin a top to bottom audit of our state government.”
Hours before the St. Cloud event, she posted her plan on X again: “Minnesotans deserve a state government that matches their drive and moves us forward on rooting out fraud, lowering costs, and expanding our economy.”
Republican nominee Lisa Demuth, the former House speaker, responded: “Amy Klobuchar wants to triple down on the Walz Era.”
In an August interview with Fox News Digital, Demuth said: “My question is, where were you for the last 10 years, but absolutely the last eight years?” Demuth said Klobuchar “decided to talk about fraud now that they’re running for office.” Klobuchar’s answer, posted on X: “It’s time for results, not excuses.”
[NOTE: This week, Minnesota DFL shared a fact check from KTTC which confirmed that Klobuchar “worked with the DOJ to secure additional federal prosecutors following the 2022 Feeding Our Future fraud indictments.”]
A fact check from KTTC confirmed that Amy Klobuchar worked with the DOJ to secure additional federal prosecutors following the 2022 Feeding Our Future fraud indictments. https://t.co/bna2hxeqhR
— Project True North (@proj_true_north) October 26, 2026