By Alex Chen | Thursday, January 1, 2026
Jeremy Christenson, a former Homeland Security Investigations official, told reporters on Thursday that Minnesota officials suppressed investigations into alleged day care fraud tied to federally funded programs, arguing that political pressure and accusations of racism derailed cases even after investigators raised repeated alarms.
On “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Christenson said state leaders in Minnesota worked to shut down inquiries into alleged social service fraud involving day care centers, despite mounting evidence and internal warnings from investigators.
“It happens because the people at the top in the state of Minnesota just simply did not want this to be known. They simply swept it under the rug,” Christenson said.
“That’s the only way it can be explained. They did not want this to come out.”
“So, the people who were making these cases were chastised, demoted, reassigned, and belittled for the most part, and just told not to work on it anymore. It just went away.”
He was asked whether specific communities appeared repeatedly in the cases he worked.
“Oh, they’re the A team when it comes to it. There’s an A-team, a B-team, and a C-team.”
“The Somali community is definitely the A-team, let’s just put it that way,” Christenson said.
He also described how allegations of racism were used to blunt investigations, particularly after state officials initially moved to cut off funding.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, originally, I believe the governor did cut off funding when the investigation for feeding starving children came out. But as soon as the racism charges started coming out and all the bigotry charges came out, they opened the tap again.”
“And they, just the governor and the persons on that side, just didn’t want to be labeled a racist,” he said.
The comments come as scrutiny continues to focus on day care centers in Minneapolis following fraud prosecutions tied to Feeding Our Future, a case federal authorities have described as one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the country.
Separately, a Somali-run day care center in Minneapolis reported a break-in this week amid heightened fear of investigations. Nasrulah Mohamed, manager of Nokomis Day Care Center, told reporters that the business was broken into overnight Wednesday, with “important documentation,” including records related to employees and children, reported missing.
