A Minnesota lawmaker said he’ll ensure the legislature takes a deeper look at the nearly half million in state dollars Gov. Tim Walz spent to help him prepare for his congressional testimony last month.
Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, spoke with Alpha News on Wednesday and said he’s calling “shenanigans” on the bill the Walz administration racked up with K&L Gates, a global law firm, to help the governor prep for testimony before a U.S. House committee on the topic of sanctuary states.
“I don’t see this as an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars,” said Nash, who sits on the Legislative Advisory Commission, which has authority to review and authorize funds spent by various state agencies.
Nash said the Walz administration informed the LAC via letter on June 12 — the morning of Walz’s scheduled congressional testimony — of its intention to transfer funds to pay for consulting services that spanned about two months.
On June 26, Walz signed off on the transfer of $430,000 from the state’s “General Contingent Account” to the Governor’s Office to be used for “Legal Services Related to Congressional Hearing and Testimony.”
Nash said he has read through the invoices related to that funds transfer and included were notes explaining a number of services the firm provided, including “prepared cheat sheets” the governor could utilize during testimony along with consultants who would accompany him at the hearing.
“I’d like to ask the governor, ‘Why do you feel you needed to be prepped to go back to Congress where you had spent years and as a member of Congress?’” Nash said. “To give testimony on bills he signed, which he should already know a lot about.”
“To me there is just something I still want to know, and I fully intend to use time over the interim, and when we get back in session, to get to the bottom of it.”
Walz grilled on ICE comments
During the hearing before the House Oversight Committee on June 12, Walz and two other Democratic governors were asked a number of questions on the topic of illegal immigration.
In one instance, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, R-S.C., asked Walz, “Do you still want to abolish ICE?”
“I never said I want to abolish ICE,” Walz replied.
“Didn’t you march in a rally calling for ICE’s abolishment?”
“Not that I can recall,” Walz said.
Mace was referring to a 2018 march Walz attended — when he was a congressman and gubernatorial candidate — that featured protesters carrying signs with the phrase “Abolish ICE.”
Mace and other Republicans at the hearing also asked Walz about a speech he gave at a commencement ceremony in May, where he referred to ICE as Trump’s “gestapo,” first reported by Alpha News. Walz refused to apologize for the comment.
On Wednesday, the Star Tribune was the first to report the news of Walz’s $430,000 consulting bill. Alpha News reached out to the governor’s office seeking comment but hasn’t received a reply.
Following the revelation of the legal services bill, Congressman Tom Emmer, R-Minn., criticized the expenditure.
“Tim Walz spent over $430,000 of your hard-earned money to prepare for his House Oversight Committee hearing and couldn’t define what a woman is,” Emmer said, referring to a question Walz struggled to answer during the hearing.
At the Minnesota Capitol, Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth and Floor Leader Harry Niska, both Republicans, said the governor “wasted $430,000 in taxpayer money on PR consultants to prepare for a congressional hearing.”
“Taxpayers deserve a government that is fair, competent, and responsible,” they said in a joint statement. “Instead, they’re getting chaos and mismanagement. Minnesotans deserve better.”
Senate Republicans asked why Walz didn’t use his own resources that are afforded to him by staff or the Attorney General’s Office.
“[Walz] is surrounded by hundreds of state-employed legal and policy experts,” Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, said. “So why spend nearly half a million in taxpayer dollars to help him explain his own policies?”
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Author: Hank Long
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