Ranking Member Raskin’s Opening Statement at Subcommittee Hearing on Republicans’ Selective Concern About Fraud
Washington, D.C. (January 21, 2026)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, delivered opening remarks at the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance hearing on Republicans’ selective concern about fraud, as they stay silent while Trump pardons fraudsters, guts oversight and enriches himself from the Oval Office—harming all Americans.
Below are Ranking Member Raskin’s remarks at today’s hearing.
WATCH Ranking Member Raskin’s opening statement.
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
“When Public Funds Are Abused: Addressing Fraud and the Theft of Taxpayer Dollars”
January 21, 2026
Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of our witnesses for joining us.
In a just world, the Judiciary Committee today would be investigating why a masked ICE agent shot three times in cold blood and killed an unarmed citizen, a 37-year-old mom. Renee Nicole Good. We’d be investigating why Trump’s DOJ is harassing and investigating Renee’s wife instead of investigating her killer. We’d be asking why ICE agents are trained in basic CPR, but 911 tapes have shown none of the agents performing CPR on Ms. Good. They left her bleeding alone in her car for almost three minutes, and definitively rejected the help of a man who came forward and identified himself as a doctor.
We’d be investigating why, in another Minnesota case, ICE agents deployed tear gas under the car of a family of eight people, including a six-month-old, a two-year-old and two kids with severe asthma who were just trying to get home from a basketball game. The baby stopped breathing, and his mom had to administer CPR as they desperately waited for medical help to arrive.
But our colleagues want to talk about fraud in Minnesota, fraud that was already being investigated and prosecuted under the last Administration.
It is true that social services fraud and serious fraud occurred in Minnesota. That’s why under President Biden, the Department of Justice opened multiple criminal investigations that to date have already resulted in more than 90 people being charged and 64 people being convicted of federal criminal offenses. Indeed, Minnesota lawmakers acted to root out and prevent fraud going forward in the public benefits program. That’s why last year, the Minnesota legislature passed legislation to empower the governor to cut off payments or to claw back funds whenever fraud is detected. And that’s why Governor Walz appointed the first ever Director of Program Integrity to make sure the state is effectively investigating and preventing fraud and corruption in their programs.
The fraud in Minnesota was discovered not by a right-wing social media influencer who’s been harassing people in communities all over Minnesota in recent weeks, but by the hard work of real local investigative journalists, brave whistleblowers and state and federal auditors. This fraud, which we must take seriously, is not unlike the $2.5 billion breathtaking Medicare fraud scheme uncovered last year in the home state of the Chairman of the Subcommittee, as he himself mentioned, were the massive COVID-19 unemployment assistance fraud scheme uncovered in Chairman Jordan’s home state of Ohio.
Fraud is endemic in government all over the world. There are fraudsters attacking our public institutions, trying to undermine them and rip them off. Even our president has been convicted of 34 counts of criminal fraud by a jury of his peers in New York, related to the fraudulent payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and also civilly convicted in New York for different kinds of real estate fraud. Fraud is not headquartered in one state or one municipality, much less one ethnic, racial or religious community.
But President Trump couldn’t resist the temptation to use fraud in Minnesota as an occasion to mobilize the power of the federal government to bully and intimidate first and second generation Somali Americans who live in that state. Many of the people convicted in the fraud schemes were of Somali ancestry, so under the pretext of cracking down on fraud that had already been discovered, investigated and prosecuted, Trump surged federal immigration officers to Minnesota and aimed them at the Somali American communities, calling the people who live there repeatedly garbage. This is despite the fact that it is a complete non-sequitur, obviously, to send immigration agents to conduct fraud investigations. And the deployment of law enforcement resources against an entire ethnic community after the criminal prosecution of a small group of its members is to promote the sinister ideas of collective guilt and guilt by association, two doctrines that are emphatically rejected in anglo-American jurisprudence and by our courts. The community targeted Minneapolis is made up, incidentally, overwhelmingly of U.S. citizens. 95% of Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens, including 58% of whom were born in the United States.
Well, what is the Trump Administration’s actual record on fraud? Well, let’s see, president trump pardoned the big time drug dealer and convicted fraudster Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, sparing him a 45-year criminal sentence after he brought in 400 tons of cocaine into our country. That’s 800,000 pounds of cocaine that he said, “we are going to stuff up the nostrils of the gringos.” And Trump pardoned him. And if you’re interested in that particular sweetheart deal, that would be a great subject for a hearing. Mr. Chairman, just last week, again, the president granted pardons to more convicted fraudsters. Julio Herrera Velutini was scheduled to be sentenced this month for participation in a political corruption and fraud scheme alongside his codefendant, the former governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez. In late 2024, Mr. Herrera was facing felony bribery charges. In a different case, his daughter donated $2.5 million to the MAGA Inc. super PAC. Then, in May 2025, Mr. Herrera’s lawyer, who had served on President Trump’s legal team, negotiated a deal allowing him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor offense instead.
Several months later, Mr. Herrera’s daughter donated another million dollars to MAGA Inc. And what do you know? President Trump generously granted Mr. Herrera a full and unconditional pardon just last week. They’re making a fraud out of the pardon process in America, with pay to play rules as they pardon recidivist, hardened, unrepentant fraudsters. Well, indeed, in total, President Trump has pardoned more than 1,600 people, depriving victims, survivors and taxpayers of an estimated—check this out—$1.55 billion in restitution and fines owed to us, the American people, while shockingly, because other presidents didn’t do this but Trump did, while shockingly allowing corporate fraudsters and tax cheats to keep all of their ill-gotten gains. This is a massive and unprecedented swindle from working class people and crime victims, as the Administration gives all of these ill-gotten gains right back to the criminal fraudsters who stole the money in the first place.
And finally, Mr. Chairman, President Trump has dismantled the infrastructure that actually prosecutes white collar crime and fraud in America, actually rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. The Trump DOJ gutted the Public Integrity Section at DOJ that prosecutes government officials who break the law, and nearly a year ago, his DOJ suspended enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits foreign bribery, saying all bets are off. He’s gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is the first and the only agency devoted solely at the federal level to protect American consumers against being cheated by big financial corporations.
The CFPB delivered $21 billion back to more than 200 million Americans who were victims of fraud and other predatory business practices, and the Administration has been gutting the CFPB because they are on the side of corporate fraud and white collar crime. That’s the truth of what’s going on there. They fired 17 inspectors general, the independent government watchdogs whose job it is actually to root out waste, fraud, abuse and corruption and left 28 IG offices without Senate-confirmed leadership at all, allowing the corruption and fraud to run rampant.
So, if we’re going to have a hearing about fraud in America, Mr. Chairman, let’s do it. Let’s take in the full scope of what’s taking place in our country. I yield back.