HANN DEMANDS CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY FROM LT. GOV. FLANAGAN ON FRAUD

“It doesn’t take a sideline reporter to know that we have to keep our eye on the ball and uncover the truth about the massive fraud on the Walz-Flanagan watch.”

Eden Prairie, Minn. — Former Minnesota Republican Party Chairman and Senate Minority Leader David Hann today called on U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer and U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to call — or subpoena if necessary — Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan to testify under oath regarding the massive fraud that occurred during her tenure alongside Governor Tim Walz.

“Now that law enforcement is allowed to do its job,” Hann said, “it doesn’t take a sideline reporter to know that we’ve got to keep our eye on the ball and uncover the truth about the massive fraud on the Walz-Flanagan watch. 

That’s why today I have encouraged the Chairs of the Committees in both the U.S. House and Senate investigating the fraud in Minnesota to call — or subpoena if necessary — Lieutenant Governor Flanagan to appear before their respective committees and testify under oath. What did she know? When did she know it? And what did she do — or fail to do — once she knew?”

Hann made his request in formal letters delivered to the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

“Why must the Lieutenant Governor be called to testify? Because at a previous Congressional hearing," Hann said, "a Minnesota State Representative testified under oath that Peggy Flanagan publicly denounced fraud Whistleblowers as – in Flanagan’s words – 'weirdos and losers sitting in their mothers’ basement.'

If that’s Peggy Flanagan’s attitude toward whistleblowers, Minnesotans deserve to know whether she did anything to protect taxpayers — or chose to look the other way.”

Documentation:

On January 7, 2026, Minnesota State Representative Marion Rarick testified under oath during the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s first hearing into fraud and misuse of federal funds that on April 12, 2024, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan publicly denounced fraud whistleblowers as “weirdos and losers sitting in their mothers’ basement.”  

Rarick said Flanagan’s disparaging of whistleblowers occurred at a well-attended Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services Equity Conference at the Heritage Center of Brooklyn Center, MN.

A second hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, February 10, 2026, to which Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have been invited to attend.

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary originally scheduled a hearing on fraud issues connected to Minnesota (e.g. Somali fraud schemes) but it has been delayed and not yet rescheduled publicly.