Following the selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, a number of controversies have erupted, including his dishonesty about and involvement in a massive $250 million pandemic aid-related fraud scheme perpetrated by Somali migrants.

Walz and other officials falsely claimed they'd tried to stop the fraud but were ordered to keep it going by a court -- a claim that earned Walz and others a public admonishment from the judge presiding over the case, according to Breitbart.

As the judge explained in a 2022 press release, he never issued any such order and it was the Walz administration's Education Department, which has separately been exposed for its lax oversight, that voluntarily resumed its perhaps unwitting involvement in the migrants' scam.

Walz administration failed to stop fraudulent scheme

Beginning in 2020, an organization known as Feeding Our Future exploited roughly $250 million in federal pandemic relief funds by falsely claiming that the money was used to feed hungry children when, in fact, it was used to personally enrich dozens of schemers.

According to the Associated Press, a recent report from Minnesota's nonpartisan Legislative Auditor revealed that state officials could have stopped the fraud early on but failed to do so because of its lax oversight -- a claim the state's Education Department disputed.

Instead, for more than a year, the department and other officials, including Gov. Walz, insisted that a 2021 court order had forced them to continue working with and approving applications for the fraudulent organization -- a claim that prompted the presiding judge in the case to publicly call out Walz and others for the blatant lie.

Judge called out "false" statements by Walz, others

In September 2022, Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann approved a news release that explained how, after it had come under investigation for alleged fraud, FOF filed a lawsuit against the state that accused it of violating federal laws and anti-discrimination statutes by failing to approve its applications to receive payments for new food distribution sites.

The lawsuit urged the court to intervene but before Guthmann could issue a ruling on the matter, the state and FOF reached a voluntary agreement in 2021 to continue reviewing the applications and resume payments for the fraudulent distribution sites that already existed.

Yet, once the media began reporting on the scandal in 2022, state officials, including Gov. Walz, repeatedly insisted in media reports and sworn testimony that an order from the judge had forced them to continue providing funds.

The release stated, "In her April 4, 2022, testimony to the Minnesota Senate, the Commissioner of Education stated that the MN Department of Education tried to stop payments to FOF, only to be ordered by Judge Guthmann to resume payments. That is false."

"Then, when federal indictments were announced this week, many new reports were published," the release continued. "On September 22, 2022, Governor Tim Walz told the media that the Minnesota Department of Education attempted to end payments to FOF because of possible fraud, but that Judge Guthmann ordered payments to continue in April 2021. That is also false."

"As the public court record and Judge Guthmann’s orders make plain, Judge Guthmann never issued an order requiring the MN Department of Education to resume food reimbursement payments to FOF," the release added. "The Department of Education voluntarily resumed payments and informed the court that FOF resolved the 'serious deficiencies' that prompted it to suspend payments temporarily. All of the MN Department of Education food reimbursement payments to FOF were made voluntarily, without any court order."

Walz and others lied and tried to shift blame

According to the AP report, an auditor found that Minnesota could have stopped the fraudulent scheme in its infancy but didn't, and once that $250 million scam was publicly exposed, state officials led by and including Gov. Walz lied about it and tried to shift blame to the presiding judge.

"This is stunning," Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson told the AP. "The Department of Education and Gov. Walz have repeatedly tried to tell the public that they did all they could ... but this report clearly demonstrates that was a false narrative."