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Aimee Bock, the convicted ringleader of the Feeding Our Future scandal, told Fox News from Sherburne County Jail that she believes Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of widespread fraud well before federal prosecutors had to step in. Her jailhouse interview is a bombshell accusation that demands more than partisan spin from the people running the state.
Federal prosecutors have already described the scheme as one of the largest COVID-era fraud operations in the country, with roughly $250 million siphoned from programs meant to feed vulnerable children — and juries have found Bock guilty on multiple counts. The scale and brazenness of the operation exposed a catastrophic failure of oversight that cost hardworking taxpayers real money and trust in government. The public deserves clear answers about how so many red flags were missed.
Bock told Fox that she repeatedly flagged suspicious claims and companies to state officials, only to see program sponsors continue to be approved and paid out. If true, this is not merely bureaucratic incompetence; it looks like a system that was either willfully blind or willfully negligent. Minnesotans should not have to accept “we were overwhelmed” as an excuse when kids’ lunches and taxpayer dollars were on the line.
Keith Ellison’s office called Bock a liar and emphasized that federal and state investigators thoroughly examined the crimes, but that response still does not resolve the glaring political questions. Gov. Walz’s office did not immediately offer a robust rebuttal in the wake of the interview, and silence from the governor’s mansion only fuels suspicion. We need transparency about who knew what, when they knew it, and why action wasn’t taken sooner.
This scandal isn’t an isolated scandal — it’s part of a wider pattern now under scrutiny in Washington, with dozens of defendants charged and dozens more convictions already secured in what federal investigators call a sweeping probe. Republicans on oversight panels and even some state officials have called for stronger accountability and, in some cases, for resignations over what they call a dereliction of duty. The dizzying scope of the fraud and the sluggish state response make clear that only a thorough, independent investigation will restore confidence.
Hardworking Minnesotans and taxpayers across America deserve better than platitudes and reflexive defenses from political insiders. Whether this was incompetence, corruption, or both, the people at the top must be held to account — no special treatment, no politically convenient amnesia. It’s time for a full, independent probe that gets to the bottom of who in state government watched this happen and why they failed to stop it.
