Grand Theft America / Receipt power-2026-06-09-083
Vance refers Minnesota's governor and attorney general to the Justice Department
Vice-President JD Vance asked the Department of Justice to investigate Tim Walz, his rival in the 2024 election, referring the Minnesota governor and the state's Democratic attorney general Keith Ellison to the department's fraud division for criminal investigation.
What happened
Vance said on X that he referred a 205-page report released the previous day by the Republican-controlled House oversight committee to the justice department's fraud division for criminal investigation, writing that Minnesota state officials 'are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimated whistleblowers, they must face justice'. Ellison, who has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration, called the report's allegations unfounded and the referral 'a political stunt from an administration that uses the machinery of government to target its perceived opponents while extending leniency to those aligned with its interests'.
Why it matters
A referral from the vice-president names two sitting state officials, one of them his own opponent in the last presidential election, as targets for federal criminal investigation, and what he sends the fraud division is a congressional report rather than a prosecutor's file. The Guardian reports the justice department is also reportedly investigating Walz, Ellison and local officials for allegedly hindering immigration enforcement.
Receipt details
- Phase 2
- Turn law enforcement inward
- Prosecute political opponents
