Of course. To have taken any other course of action would have been “Islamophobic.”

“Email Appears to Show DHS Wanted to Cut Check to Child Care Center Connected to ‘Taliban Official,’” by Anthony Gockowski, Alpha News, December 3, 2019:

Officials in Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS) allegedly wanted to cut a new check to a child care center that had its bank account frozen by the Office of Foreign Asset Control because of the account owner’s association “with a Taliban official,” emails obtained by a state representative show.

Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) released a number of internal DHS emails she obtained through a data practices request. The Republican lawmaker uncovered a number of alarming trends in the emails, including the department’s “cozy” relationship with an organization that conducts itself “like the mafia,” Inspector General Carolyn Ham’s continued paid leave from the department, and the agency’s willingness to pay a child care center with possible connections to a “Taliban official.”

Several acronyms are used throughout the emails and in Franson’s observations. They include: OIG, which stands for Office of Inspector General (housed in DHS); OLA, which stands for Office of the Legislative Auditor; CCAP, which stands for Child Care Assistance Program; and MMCA, which stands for Minnesota Minority Child Care Association.

“Sitting on the couch going through data practice requests and it’s very curious how the disgraced Carolyn Ham is still on paid leave from OIG,” Franson said in a Twitter thread discussing the emails. “Carolyn Ham exercised poor judgment in not proactively sharing data on CCAP fraud with the OLA and in cozying up to the MMCA—an organization comprised of members with ties to fraudulent activity.”

Ham has been on paid “investigative leave” since March, and as of July an investigation into her conduct had yet to even begin. Ham was placed on leave after an OLA report confirmed that millions of dollars in government payments went to fraudulent child care centers under CCAP.

As inspector general—the only one in the state—Ham is responsible for investigating DHS-managed programs, like CCAP.

According to Franson, Ham showed “more interest in managing political ramifications of fraud than making sure fraud itself was investigated.”

For example, days before Fox 9 was set to break its infamous story exposing child care fraud, Ham suggested giving MMCA a “heads up” in order to “build a little trust.”

“I am wondering if we should give the Minnesota Minority Child Care Association a heads up that [redacted] is likely running a story on child care fraud, perhaps focused on Africa or payments sent overseas. I think it might help to build a little trust if they were not blindsided by the story,” Ham wrote in an email to her colleagues….