It was the viral video seen ‘round the world.
The 43-minute video, posted to YouTube the day after Christmas by a 23-year-old conservative content creator, claimed with little evidence Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota were fraudulently taking funding meant to provide child care for low-income families. The video, boosted by Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk, quickly racked up millions of views.
The impact was swift: DHS and the FBI ramped up their presence in the state, and federal funding for child care in the entire state was frozen.
But a week later, state officials said the child care centers accused of fraud in the video were all operating as expected when visited by investigators.
The state’s initial findings cast doubt on the claims of fraud articulated in the viral video. Still, investigations into alleged wrongdoing are ongoing. Minnesota officials have until January 9 to provide the Trump administration with information about providers and parents who receive federal funds for child care, according to a bulletin sent Friday by the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families to child care providers and shared with CNN.
The Trump administration’s demands are the latest step in a yearslong saga that started with investigations into theft of government funds in Minnesota under the Biden administration.
Here’s what we know about the investigations and what comes next as crucial funding for child care hangs in the balance for thousands of Minnesota families.
On December 30, Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill announced the agency was freezing all child care payments to Minnesota. The state typically receives about $185 million annually in federal child care funding, supporting care for 19,000 children.
“Funds will be released only when states prove they are being spent legitimately,” he added. He said he had demanded Gov. Tim Walz provide a “comprehensive audit” of the centers featured in the video.
The proof must be shared with the government by January 9, according to the email sent by state officials to child care providers. The email said HHS has requested specific details, including the total amount of Child Care and Development Fund payments received by five child care centers and administrative data – like names and social security numbers – for all recipients of federal money. The fund is the main source of federal support for child care and includes the Child Care Assistance Program, which Nick Shirley, the creator of the viral video, alleged was being exploited in Minnesota.
An HHS spokesperson confirmed the January 9 deadline to CNN.
Investigators with the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families conducted “on-site compliance checks” at all the centers shown in the video, the department said in a news release. “Children were present at all sites except for one – that site, was not yet open for families for the day when inspectors arrived,” the release stated. Investigators “gathered evidence and initiated further review,” according to the release.
The department has ongoing investigations into four of the centers mentioned in the video. In total across the state, the department “has 55 open investigations involving providers receiving CCAP funding,” according to the release.
Asked whether the state’s early findings would affect the funding freeze, HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Media Relations Andrew Nixon told CNN, “The onus is on the state to provide additional verification, and until they do so, HHS will not allow the state to draw down their matching funds for the CCDF program.”
In the meantime, thousands of Minnesota families who rely on federal funding for child care are in limbo. It is unclear how quickly funding could be restored if the state meets the January 9 deadline, although the bulletin sent to child care providers says the government will provide the state more information on January 5.
And if Minnesota’s responses are not “satisfactory,” the federal government “says it may withhold CCDF and impose other penalties,” according to the email sent to child care providers.
Child care fraud has been on state authorities’ radar for more than a decade before the viral video. A 2014 report from the Office of Inspector General identified “a pattern of child care fraud activities that involves deception and exploitation.” A few years ago, the state implemented the “Early and Often” program, which involves multiple unscheduled visits to newly licensed centers to ensure they are operating properly.
DHS and FBI also investigating Minnesota fraud
Along with HHS, DHS has dispatched Homeland Security Investigations and ICE officers to the state, posting videos of agents visiting what they call potential fraud sites.
DHS did not directly address CNN’s questions about how the state’s findings that the centers in the viral video were operating normally would affect its investigations, but sent CNN statements from several officials.
“Right now in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Investigations are on the ground conducting a large scale investigation on fraudulent daycare and healthcare centers, as well as other rampant fraud,” read a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
It is unclear if any arrests have been made for fraud or other crimes in DHS’ latest crackdown, which comes after an ICE operation targeting Somalis in the Twin Cities was announced in December. CNN has asked DHS for more information.
It is notable DHS — the overarching federal department handling immigration and national security — is central to the investigations. Shirley claimed in the viral video child care centers run by Somalis in Minnesota were committing fraud but did not provide the identities of the owners of most of the centers. The vast majority of the state’s Somali population, which numbers around 108,000 in total, are US citizens.
FBI Director Kash Patel also said the bureau had already sent additional resources to Minnesota even “before the public conversation escalated online.” Patel pledged to stamp out fraud, saying in a post on X, “Fraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide.”
CNN has reached out to the FBI for information about whether the state’s initial findings have affected its investigations or whether any arrests have been made.
Just ahead of the January 9 deadline, Minnesota lawmakers will testify before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee. The January 7 hearing will be centered around “fraud and misuse of federal funds” and feature testimony from three members of the Minnesota House of Representatives: Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson and Marion Rarick.
In a separate hearing February 10, Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison are called to appear before the committee’s investigative panel.
“Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s social services programs,” Republican Rep. James Comer said in a Wednesday statement about the upcoming hearings.
Dozens of people, the vast majority of Somali descent, were charged in a previous fraud scandal under Walz’ tenure involving a nonprofit prosecutors say falsely claimed to be providing meals to needy children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The scope of fraud in the state could be much larger, according to at least one federal prosecutor: Half or more of the roughly $18 billion in Medicaid funds which supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen due to fraud, First Assistant US Attorney Joe Thompson said on December 18, according to The Associated Press.
Walz, a staunch critic of the president and the 2024 Democratic candidate for vice president, has pushed back on Thompson’s assertions while promising to fight fraud.
“You should be equally outraged about one dollar or whatever that number is, but they’re using that number without the proof behind it,” Walz said in a December 19 news conference, according to CNN affiliate KARE.
“I am accountable for this, and more importantly, I am the one that will fix it,” the governor said.
Somali community and child care providers under pressure
The viral video and cascade of investigations have presented real turmoil for the Somali community – already the target of years of vitriol from the president and from Republicans – and for child care providers.
At least one Somali-run day care, which was not featured in Shirley’s video, was broken into and vandalized in the aftermath, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The Council on American Islamic Relations called for an investigation of possible bias in the incident, which they said “raises serious concerns about the real-world consequences of anti-Somali, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate speech circulating online.”
Some licensed child care centers have received “harassing or threatening communications” since the scandal, the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families said in its bulletin to providers.
Several day care providers told CNN they have faced an influx of calls asking about enrollment, hours of operation, and availability which do not seem to be coming from genuinely interested parents and distract from their work.
“It’s just random calls, extra things that we don’t need to focus on,” said Kassim Busuri, who owns a day care near Minneapolis. “We need to focus on our children that we care for.”
And the ongoing funding freeze poses uncertainty for child care providers and the families they serve.
“We have thousands of families wondering if they’re going to be able to be able to get the care that their kids need, if they’re going to be able to go to work next week,” Minnesota Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, co-chair of the Children and Families Committee, told CNN over the weekend.
“We have child care providers and small business owners who rely on the work of those parents, not knowing if they’ll be able to keep their doors open, depending on how this freeze proceeds.”
Scrutiny spreads to Washington and Oregon
The explosive impact of Shirley’s video seems to have inspired self-styled investigators in other states with significant Somali populations, too.
Videos have popped up showing other content creators trying, like Shirley, to enter child care centers – and using their locked doors as evidence they are committing fraud. It is not unusual for child care centers to lock their doors and to deny entry to unexpected visitors, especially if they are filming.
The mayor of Columbus, Ohio said in a statement he was aware of the videos and the state has strong safeguards to prevent theft of government child care funds.
“Actions that disrupt licensed childcare operations or create fear in these spaces are inappropriate,” read a statement from Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office.
In Washington, Attorney General Nick Brown said his office has received “reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking.”
“Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation,” he wrote on X. “Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”
