The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, says President Trump “believes” that Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, is “criminally liable” in connection with social services fraud in the North Star State.

On Monday night, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News that Mr. Trump “believes Governor Walz is criminally liable.”

“And I think that the Department of Justice is going to find out,” she said. 

Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social earlier Monday, “Minnesota’s Corrupt Governor will possibly leave office before his Term is up.” He wrote that Mr. Walz was “caught, REDHANDED.”

“I feel certain the facts will come out, and they will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of ‘SLIMEBALLS,’” he said. “Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota, but others, like Governor Gavin Newscum, JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul, have done, in my opinion, an even more dishonest and incompetent job. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!”

The post renewed questions about whether federal prosecutors would charge Mr. Walz.

Mr. Walz said on Monday that he was ending his bid for a third term. He said he did not believe he could “give a political campaign my all” as Republicans pursue allegations of widespread fraud in Minnesota.

Federal prosecutors said last month that fraudsters may have stolen more than half of the $18 billion in federal Medicaid funds sent to Minnesota since 2018. At least 92 people have been charged in the state, 89 percent of them Somali Americans. The assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, Joe Thompson, told reporters that the “magnitude” of the fraud “cannot be overstated.”

While most Republicans have not accused Mr. Walz of being personally involved in the scheme, they have raised the prospect that he might be criminally liable if he did not act to stop the fraud and protect state assets, or if he tried to conceal fraudulent activity. 

The House majority whip, Tom Emmer, hinted in a letter to Mr. Walz might be held liable for the fraud. The letter came in response to a video posted by a YouTuber, Nick Shirley, that appeared to show several government-funded daycare centers, operated by Somali Americans, were not providing services to children. 

“It would have taken your administration minutes to discover these Somali-run schemes,” Mr. Emmer said. “Sadly, ignorance is no defense under the law.”

The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, told Fox Business last week that Mr. Walz should be the person “most concerned” because he was “by all accounts, warned of this fraud, but yet didn’t want to do anything to offend the Somali voting population.”

The House Oversight Committee has scheduled a hearing at which several Minnesota state lawmakers are expected to testify that they warned Mr. Walz of fraud but that he ignored them. 

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Comer said that Mr. Walz is “either complicit in this theft or grossly incompetent in preventing it.”

Mr. Walz sought to defend his record in his statement announcing the end of his reelection campaign, “We’ve fired people who weren’t doing their jobs. We’ve seen people go to jail for stealing from our state. We’ve cut off whole streams of funding in partnership with the federal government,” he said.

He accused Republicans of engaging in “political gamesmanship,” which he said was making it more difficult to combat fraud. 

While Republicans, such as Mr. Trump and Mr. Comer, are keeping the prospect of criminal charges alive, a law professor at George Washington Law School, Jonathan Turley, wrote on X on Tuesday, “I do not see any evidence that would suggest that he is criminally culpable for his lack of leadership.”

Mr. Turley said criminal culpability would “require an intentional act to further a fraudulent scheme or actor.” He said “no such evidence has emerged,” and the accusations of ignoring whistleblowers and not taking allegations of fraud seriously are “generally not viewed as criminal conduct.”

Representatives for Mr. Walz did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.