The Minnesota House Freedom Caucus announced on Friday that the long-anticipated impeachment hearings against the state’s governor, Tim Walz, and Attorney General Keith Ellison are officially scheduled to begin next week, on April 15, at the State Capitol in St. Paul.
The hearings are a major milestone in a months-long effort by Republican lawmakers to hold Walz accountable for what they call “corrupt conduct” and a systemic failure to address billions of dollars in fraud across Minnesota’s social service programs, as covered by The Dallas Express.
The Minnesota Freedom Caucus formally filed articles of impeachment against Walz in January, accusing the governor of violating his constitutional oath by engaging in corruption and failing to “faithfully execute state law.”
State Reps introduced the articles. Ben Davis, Mike Wiener, and Drew Roach argued that the scale of alleged fraud in Minnesota’s benefit programs represents one of the biggest government failures in history.
The Fraud
Federal prosecutors have estimated that fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs – primarily Medicaid and other aid programs – since 2018 could total $9 billion or more, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Much of that money was intended for programs serving children, disabled residents, and families in need.
In December of 2025, a group claiming to represent more than 480 current Minnesota Department of Human Services employees publicly accused Walz of ignoring repeated fraud warnings and retaliating against staff who raised any alarms. The employees alleged their concerns were met with “monitoring, threats, repression,” and efforts to discredit any internal reports of fraud.
When Walz appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) confronted him directly over the Feeding Our Future scandal – the now-defunct nonprofit at the center of what prosecutors call the largest COVID-era fraud in the country, involving nearly $300 million in stolen funds meant to feed kids. Jordan accused Walz of misrepresenting why payments to the fraud-linked nonprofit were resumed, or “unfrozen,” in 2021.
“Either you’re lying, or the court’s lying,” Jordan told Walz when grilling him over the fraud payments, The Dallas Express reported at the time.
The committee’s own report, titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion,” concluded that both men were aware of the widespread fraud in federally funded programs as early as 2019.
If the Republican-led Minnesota House passes the impeachment articles with a simple majority, the process would move to the Democrat-controlled State Senate. There, it would take a two-thirds vote to convict and remove Walz from office. Given how the Senate is split, that outcome seems pretty unlikely – but Republicans could still say the hearings serve as a valuable way to hold him accountable and air out the issues publicly.
Notable Impeachments in American History
Here’s a look at other prominent politicians in American history who have faced impeachment trials or hearings:
- Samuel Chase (Supreme Court Justice) — Impeachment trial, 1804–1805; acquitted by the Senate, setting an important precedent against using impeachment to settle political disputes.
- Andrew Johnson — Impeachment trial, March–May 1868; acquitted by the Senate, with the final votes on May 16 and May 26 falling one vote short of the two-thirds needed to convict.
- Richard Nixon — House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings, July–August 1974; resigned the presidency on August 9 before the full House voted.
- Bill Clinton — Impeachment trial, January–February 1999; acquitted by the Senate on both articles (perjury and obstruction of justice).
- Rod Blagojevich (IL Governor) — Impeachment trial, January 2009; convicted and removed from office by the Illinois Senate.
- Donald Trump (First) — Impeachment trial, January–February 2020; acquitted by the Senate on both articles (abuse of power and obstruction of Congress).
- Donald Trump (Second) — Impeachment trial, February 2021; acquitted by the Senate on the charge of incitement of insurrection.
