MINNEAPOLIS — President Donald Trump’s move to end temporary protected status for Somalis came just days after a conservative website claimed that fraudsters who bilked Minnesota government programs sent stolen money back to Somalia, where it was obtained by the terrorist group al-Shabab.

The report published by City Journal, a conservative magazine run by the Manhattan Institute, made an alarming claim that quickly went viral in conservative media circles. “The largest funder of al-Shabab is the Minnesota taxpayer,” the report asserts.

One of the story’s authors, activist Christopher Rufo, tagged Trump on social media after its publication and called for him to revoke temporary protected status for Somalis in America: “It’s time for them to go home,” Rufo posted on X. Trump followed suit, saying in a Truth Social post that Minnesota is “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

How true is all of this?

While it’s accurate that fraudsters have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from Minnesota government programs in recent years, and that many of the perpetrators have been of Somali descent, there is scant evidence to support the claim that stolen taxpayer funds have been funneled to terrorist groups.

City Journal attributes the allegation to retired Seattle police Detective Glenn Kerns and other anonymous sources. The magazine isn’t the first to make the claim.

In 2018, local television news outlet Fox9 published a report — also citing Kerns — that claimed money stolen from Minnesota’s child care assistance program (CCAP) was funding al-Shabab. Minnesota’s nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor launched an investigation after the report aired and concluded it couldn’t confirm the allegation.

“The bottom line is that we couldn’t substantiate it,” Legislative Auditor Judy Randall told the Minnesota Star Tribune on Tuesday. “That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but it doesn’t mean it did happen. It’s just that there wasn’t enough evidence to definitively tie it.”

The legislative auditor’s report noted that neither Fox9 nor a whistleblower it cited in one of its articles provided evidence to substantiate the allegation. The auditor’s office asked the whistleblower directly for evidence, “but he did not provide it to us,” the office’s report stated.

“He said investigators and law enforcement agencies had the evidence. We sought the evidence from investigators, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and court records, but did not find it there either,” the legislative auditor’s report stated.

However, the legislative auditor noted that federal regulators and law enforcement agencies are generally concerned that terrorist groups in countries such as Somalia could obtain money that immigrants and refugees in the U.S. send to their families and friends.

If federal authorities in Minnesota found evidence that fraudsters were sending money to al-Shabab, they almost certainly would have brought charges for terrorism financing or at least mentioned it during sentencing hearings.

Former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andy Luger, who served two stints as the state’s top federal prosecutor, oversaw international terrorism recruitment cases involving young Somali-American men who sought to join ISIS, as well as several pandemic and health care fraud cases — including the $250 million Feeding Our Future case.

Luger told the Minnesota Star Tribune this week that the 70 defendants his office prosecuted in the Feeding Our Future case “were looking to get rich, not fund overseas terrorism.”

Defendants in the Feeding Our Future case spent stolen taxpayer funds on real estate, luxury cars and lavish trips, federal authorities say. Some sent money overseas to buy commercial property in Kenya, not Somalia.

The City Journal authors had not responded to a request for comment by Tuesday evening.

Republicans in Minnesota have called for a federal investigation in response to the claims made by City Journal.

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer and the state’s three other Republicans in Congress have asked U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen to investigate whether stolen fraud money really was funneled to al-Shabab.

“We are confident that he will uncover the truth and hold terror-funding fraudsters— and those who enable them — accountable," Emmer posted on X.

Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Cold Spring Republican who’s running for governor, also called for a federal investigation, as did Republicans in the state Senate.

“The sprawling fraud that has become endemic under Governor Walz’s failed leadership is troubling enough for Minnesota taxpayers; the notion that these dollars could be flowing to foreign terrorist organizations adds a truly disturbing additional element,” Demuth, who took office in 2019, and a few dozen other Minnesota House Republicans wrote in a letter to Rosen.

Asked about the GOP calls for a federal investigation Tuesday, DFL Gov. Tim Walz told reporters he welcomes one.

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said, but “I don’t know if they’ll find the connection.”

Walz said Trump’s move to end temporary protected status for Somalis in America “doesn’t do anything to actually tackle the actual fraud issue.” It “stirs the pot” and divides people, he said.

“Do not paint an entire group of people with that same brush, demonizing them, putting them at risk when there is no proof to do that,” Walz said.

Community members and Somali-American lawmakers, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, held a news conference at the State Capitol on Monday denouncing Trump’s action.

Omar said the Somali community in Minnesota should not be held responsible for the actions of several dozen who were charged with defrauding government programs.

“I don’t individually feel the weight of a crime a Somali person commits because I’m Somali,” she said.

Omar said Trump and his allies haven’t provided any clear evidence showing that Minnesota taxpayer funds have been used to “aid and abet terrorism.”

“If the president believed that and he had evidence, he would take people to court,” Omar said.

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—Nathaniel Minor of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.

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