From @RetroAgent12 on X:
This is nothing new and mitigation has been ongoing but MAGA pretends it is happening now without anyone doing anything about it.
MAGA is acting like “Somali fraud in Minnesota” was just discovered because of a viral daycare video, when in reality the fraud has been getting investigated and prosecuted for years and they’re only waking up now that it’s politically useful. Federal and state investigators were probing Somali‑run daycare scams as far back as 2015, when Minneapolis centers were raided and accused of massively overbilling the Child Care Assistance Program.
The housing‑stabilization and autism‑therapy scams that are blowing up headlines in 2025 grew out of that same ecosystem, and prosecutors have already charged more than 80 defendants and secured scores of convictions tied to Somali‑linked food, housing, and therapy fraud schemes… so most of that work predated Trump’s current media blitz.
Even Kash Patel is admitting the FBI has simply “surged” resources into an ongoing investigation, not launched a brand‑new crusade.
The truth is the fraud didn’t suddenly appear in 2025; the only thing that suddenly appeared is a MAGA narrative machine trying to weaponize it while pretending everything done before they started tweeting never happened…
Minnesota’s fraud story is bad enough on facts; it doesn’t need Nick Shirley’s fan fiction.
Here’s the real timeline:
– 2020–21: Fraud in the “Feeding Our Future” child‑nutrition network explodes under loosened COVID rules. Whistleblowers and state staff flag red flags to MDE; local media start digging.
– Sept 2022: Biden’s DOJ (U.S. Attorney MN) brings the first federal indictments, years before Shirley’s videos, alleging a 250M COVID meal‑fraud scheme.
– 2023–25: DOJ keeps unsealing cases. Over 75 people charged, dozens convicted or pleading guilty, tens of millions in restitution and asset seizures ordered.
– 2025: Feds expand probes into other MN programs and publicly call this the “tip of a very large iceberg,” surging FBI/IRS resources to the state.
– Dec 2025: Shirley’s video drops, after years of audits, investigations, and prosecutions already underway.
Now the myths:
– Myth 1: “Nick uncovered the fraud with an iPhone.”
Reality: Whistleblowers, auditors, reporters, and federal agents built this case long before it was YouTube content.
– Myth 2: “Nothing happened because Democrats protected it.”
Reality: The charging documents, plea deals, and forfeiture orders are all coming from Biden’s DOJ and federal agencies in Minnesota.
– Myth 3: “This proves a Somali/immigrant conspiracy.”
Reality: The indictments describe criminal networks, not an entire community, and DOJ is targeting specific actors who falsified meal counts and laundered money, not an ethnicity.
Minnesota’s fraud scandal is real, huge, and being prosecuted aggressively. The conspiracy theory is the idea that it only became “real” when a YouTuber pointed a camera at what DOJ had already been tearing down for years.
Debunking the conspiracies:
Shirley and his allies now imply that Minnesota Democrats (or “Somali communities”) are uniquely corrupt and that only partisan outsiders are forcing accountability. In reality, both Democratic state officials and the Biden‑era Justice Department have spent years investigating, indicting, and prosecuting these frauds, and federal agencies are the ones cutting off funding and demanding reforms, not YouTubers. Claims that “nothing was happening until Nick showed up” or that this proves a deliberate pro‑fraud policy in Minnesota simply ignore the actual timeline of audits, whistleblower complaints, and DOJ cases on the books.
A fact‑based way to talk about Minnesota is this: there was enormous fraud in programs meant to feed kids and support families; it flourished when pandemic rules weakened controls; it is now being aggressively prosecuted by federal investigators; and viral videos are piling politics on top of a problem law enforcement was already working to fix.