Weekend Reformer: Trump officials make pre-election fraud announcement

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and other Trump administration officials traveled to St. Cloud yesterday to announce the arrests of four Medicaid providers, alleging they fraudulently billed for services.

The announcement came a day after federal and state agents raided childcare centers and early autism therapy centers. The arrests and press conference landing just a few days before the Nov. 3 elections appeared aimed at drawing more attention to the long-running fraud crisis in the state’s safety net programs that has bedeviled the administration of Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Tim Walz.

Altogether, the four defendants were accused of intending to defraud Medicaid of $41 million. 

I reported from St. Cloud along with Reformer photographer Nicole Neri. 

Also Friday: A federal judge ordered the federal government to immediately return a Nicaraguan immigrant to the U.S. from the Central African Republic, where he has been detained since August despite having no ties to the country. 

Kenis Lopez Gonzalez, who has no criminal record, arrived in the U.S. in 2022 from Nicaragua and turned himself in to immigration authorities at the border. In 2024, an immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to his home country because he was at risk of torture. After his arrest during Operation Metro Surge, Lopez was sent roughly 7,000 miles to the Central African Republic. 

My colleague Madi McVan interviewed Lopez from his detention in the Central African Republic and wrote his story here; she also covered the judge’s Friday decision here. 

Lopez is one of many immigrants who have protections from deportation to their home countries but have been sent by the Trump administration to largely authoritarian nations that have agreed to accept deportees in exchange for cash or other concessions.

Max Nesterak looked at what the election of America’s first Native woman U.S. senator Peggy Flanagan would mean for Indian Country. This is Max’s second major profile of Flanagan; the first dealt with her role in the fraud-riddled Walz admininstration. 

Melissa Whitler broke a story about the fiscally troubled Fridley Public Schools. The state Department of Education sent a letter to the district detailing significant concerns about financial management and the potential for the district — whose bonds were downgraded to junk level earlier this year — to “continue into a debt spiral,” of issuing new debt to pay off old debt.

House Speaker Lisa Demuth declined to say Monday whether she would pardon convicted murderer Derek Chauvin if she’s elected governor, after repeated questions from a reporter at a press conference. Read Michelle’s earlier profile of Demuth, which focuses on the role of faith in Demuth’s life and leadership. 

Former federal and state judges sent a letter Monday requesting the dismissal of a misconduct complaint filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice against nearly every federal judge in Minnesota, who had talked to the New York Times about the federal government and erosion of the rule of law under the Trump administration’s Department of Justice.

Maya Betti reported that international students, faced with restricted off-campus work options, visa denials and growing uncertainty about post-grad employment, are beginning to turn away from the promise and prestige long associated with an American degree, leaving Minnesota colleges and universities scrambling to balance federal pressures with international appeal.

Michelle reported that candidates for Minnesota’s statewide offices, alongside their deep-pocketed outside allies, have poured millions of dollars into what will likely be the most expensive midterm election in state history, according to campaign finance documents released Tuesday. And, for the first time in recent memory, Republicans are outspending Democrats. 

Madi reported that nine months after immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in south Minneapolis, Pretti’s parents are publicly calling on the U.S. Justice Department to release information and evidence related to Pretti’s killing.

“We are here today begging for the Department of Justice to do what is right — to hold the men who killed our son accountable for what they did,” Alex’s mother Susan Pretti said at a press conference in Minneapolis Tuesday. 

Madi also reported that the site of Pretti’s death on Nicollet Avenue is marked with carefully arranged flowers, candles, art and other offerings brought by visitors from near and far. 

As the snow melted in the spring and the flowers accumulated over the winter began to decay, some neighbors took charge of cleaning and refreshing the memorial every day — replacing wilted flowers, clearing snow and dirt and neatly arranging the memorial’s items.

Lately, these caretakers have been facing another challenge: vandalism.

Right-wing influencers James O’Keefe and Cam Higby were charged by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty for unlawful voting and identity theft after they pulled a dress-up stunt during the Aug. 11 statewide primary election, unsuccessfully trying to show that Minnesota’s defense against voter fraud is insufficient, I reported.

Longtime DFL activist Conrad Zbikowski wrote about how the Democratic National Committee is preparing to respond to the Trump administration’s use of the Justice Department to affect the midterms. The DNC is sending monitors out and has an in-house litigation team that is positioned to seek nationwide injunctions, although the legal theory hasn’t been tested. 

Amy Perna of the League of Women Voters wrote that the League is working across the state to make election administration more transparent and accessible. The League is training and coordinating more than 200 nonpartisan observers to watch post-election reviews across Minnesota, Nov. 12–17.

From a We Make Minnesota policy researcher: Anti-tax soundbites may work on a debate stage, but the Legislature has to pass a budget in the upcoming session, and the next governor shouldn’t take policy options off the table before it starts. The allure of an anti-tax message is understandable given both gubernatorial candidates’ desire to deliver on the broad promise of affordability, but the reality is that most pro-affordability policies would require more revenue, not less. 

And, healthcare advocate Stephanie Sutherland shared her story of being told her daughter with Type 1 diabetes no longer had health insurance. She argued Trump’s economic policies aren’t making life easier either: “Watching federal leaders prioritize unwanted mass deportations sickens me, especially because I know firsthand the importance of affordable health insurance.”

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