WASHINGTON — Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison knew of billions of dollars in benefit fraud “much earlier than they led the public to believe” — and allowed whistleblowers who flagged it to suffer retaliation, according to a stunning report released Monday.

The Walz administration “retaliated against employees who tried to raise concerns, going to great lengths to keep them quiet, including intimidation through regular check-ins with high-level agency officials and threats of military surveillance,” the report revealed.

More than 30 whistleblowers spoke with the panel to help compile the report — including several who were threatened with “military surveillance” by deputy assistant commissioner Emmanuel Nwala at a behavioral health agency.

“I wanted to reach out to my colleagues that I did intelligence research with in the Army and give them the IP addresses and the email addresses to track specific location but was asked by upper leadership to hold off as they are doing their own thing on it,” Nwala wrote in an undated email.

Both Walz and ex-assistant Department of Human Services commissioner Eric Grundahl said that the attempted military intelligence referral was inappropriate, with the Democratic governor denying knowledge of it.

“[H]e talked about some of his previous experience in the military and being able to leverage some kind of military intelligence to be able to identify who was sending those messages,” Grundahl said in a Feb. 12 interview with the Oversight Committee.

“And I followed up with him and indicated to him that that was not helpful or appropriate and that I didn’t want him to be doing that in the future.”

And despite receiving repeated warnings about the swindle, Walz and his team “repeatedly failed to act,” costing taxpayers dearly, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee concluded in its 205-page report.

“Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison are responsible for one of the most stunning oversight failures this Committee has ever examined,” Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

“Billions of dollars were stolen because Minnesota state leaders turned a blind eye to rampant fraud and retaliated against state employees who dared to raise concerns,” he added. “It is now clear the Walz Administration chose to protect the system rather than protect the taxpayer.”

The Oversight panel found that as much as $9 billion paid out to Minnesota’s 14 Medicaid programs may have gone to fraudulent uses since 2018, citing ex-First Assistant US Attorney Joe Thompson.

Walz and other Minnesota officials have rejected that claim — despite their testimonies and interviews with the panel showing they had scant knowledge of internal allegations of fraud, some of which were brought forward by whistleblowers who later suffered retaliation.

Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Hempstead, who served from August 2019 until her resignation in January 2025, told Oversight staff in a February interview that she was not aware of any actions her agency took to combat fraud during her tenure.

But emails obtained by the House staffers revealed she had been notified of at least 62 investigations into the department’s Child Care Assistance Program.

Hempstead also acknowledged there had been “concerns raised about managers retaliating in general” — including complaints against Chris Schmitter, Walz’s chief of staff for seven years who left this past October.

Schmitter, in his own February sitdown with the Oversight Committee, said he could not “recall” receiving any emails about fraud or retaliation — and that he had only been made aware of the missives through news reports.

The panel also highlighted how the state is estimated to have lost $300 million via the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, which has led to federal charges against dozens of individuals who stole money earmarked to provide meals for needy children.

According to the report, Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) Business Operations Supervisor Emily Honer had tried to cut off funding for eight potential Child Nutrition Program sites operated by Feeding Our Future in April of 2020.

The scammers responded by threatening to sue the Walz administration for purported racial discrimination.

“The Walz Administration’s MDE suddenly did an about-face, approving all eight of [Feeding Our Future’s] site applications plus an additional 10 new sites,” the Oversight report noted.

Payments to Feeding Our Future continued for almost two more years after the lawsuit threat.

Walz himself has sidestepped questions about when he became aware of the scandal. 

“Fraud warnings were elevated to the most senior levels of the Minnesota state government, meaningful corrective action was delayed or avoided, and payments continued long after credible signs of fraud emerged,” the Oversight panel chided.

The committee also scolded state officials for taking attestations by individual care providers at “face value” and not maintaining channels for whistleblowers to report fraud.

Oversight lawmakers had previously investigated Minnesota in 2012 and found the state was “defrauding” federal Medicaid programs — but “continued to exhibit poor management and oversight” of taxpayer dollars for years afterward.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, abruptly dropped his bid for a third gubernatorial term this past January amid the mounting scandal.

The Trump administration has halted some $260 million in federal Medicaid funding for Minnesota after the scandal erupted following a viral late December video by YouTuber Nick Shirley that sounded the alarms about fraud in the state.

In addition to the 205-page report, the GOP-led panel sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance, who helms the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, urging him to conduct a wider probe.

“The Committee’s investigation found that senior officials in the Minnesota state government … were aware of widespread fraud in federally funded social services programs for years, possessed the legal and procedural authority to stop payments and ban fraudulent providers, but repeatedly failed to act,” Comer wrote.

“The Committee encourages the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud 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.”

The Post contacted Walz and Ellison for comment.