FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT:
Christine Snell
612-345-2547 (cell)
Christine.Snell@house.mn.gov
Demuth calls for investigation into Feeding Our Future cover-up allegation at MDE
Court documents allege that MN Department of Education deleted emails, mislabeled documents, used burner phones to avoid Data Practices requests & discovery
ST. PAUL — House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, is calling for an investigation into allegations raised in court documents that the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) engaged in systematic and potentially illegal efforts to evade compliance with the Minnesota Data Practices Act for documents related to the Feeding our Future fraud scandal. The explosive allegations, first reported by the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence and later the Star Tribune, claim that MDE intentionally mislabeled documents and misspelled words to avoid being flagged in Data Practices Act requests, deleting documents, and used burner phones and personal emails to conduct government business.
“The disturbing allegations raised in recent court filings suggest that the Minnesota Department of Education may have broken state law in an attempt to cover-up documents related to the Feeding our Future fraud scandal,” Demuth said. “These are serious allegations that should be fully and independently investigated; if any MDE employee is found to have purposefully engaged in covering-up these documents, they should be fired immediately. Minnesotans need to know the full story about MDE’s involvement in the largest fraud scandal in state history.”
House Republicans have contacted the Office of the Legislative Auditor to request that the latest court filings be reviewed by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA). The OLA is currently conducting a Special Review into MDE’s oversight in the Feeding our Future Fraud scandal.
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