Minnesota on the hook for $430K legal bill after GOP congressional hearing where Walz testified

Minnesota taxpayers are on the hook for $430,000 in legal costs to outside lawyers who helped Gov. Tim Walz prepare for a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing where he sparred with Republicans over immigration.

The state tapped global law firm K&L Gates to prepare Walz for the June 12 congressional hearing, where he was questioned about whether Minnesota complies with federal immigration laws. On the day of the hearing, Minnesota’s budget agency sent a letter to a state legislative commission asking it to approve a $430,000 transfer from a general fund account to the governor’s office to pay for the legal services.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to Walz in April requesting his testimony at the hearing in the nation’s capital. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office provided initial legal counsel before recommending outside attorneys because of “the specialized nature of the Congressional hearing,” according to the letter from Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Erin Campbell.

“Accordingly, the State agreed to use K&L Gates to prepare for the hearing, and to ensure that the State, administrative agencies, and the Governor were well-represented,” the letter states.

Walz’s spokesman, Teddy Tschann, said in a statement Tuesday that U.S. House Republicans “planned a political stunt on the taxpayer dime.”

“They were too busy performing for the cameras to even feign interest in hearing from Governor Walz about Minnesota’s balanced approach to immigration,” Tschann said. “What’s most frustrating is that Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber planned this spectacle knowing what it would cost and went through with it anyway.”

K&L Gates worked with the governor’s office to prepare for the congressional hearing from April 10 through mid-June, according to invoices. The governor’s office racked up some $232,000 in legal fees in May alone, at an average rate of about $516 an hour, an invoice shows.

GOP state Rep. Jim Nash questioned why the governor’s office needed an outside firm when it has its own attorneys and public relations professionals on staff. He also said Attorney General Keith Ellison, the state’s top lawyer, could have helped.

“A half a million dollars of taxpayer money to prepare the governor to go to his old stomping grounds seems exorbitant, particularly since the AG for the state of Minnesota was in Congress with Walz at the same time, and the two of them certainly could have figured out how to do what they were needing to do,” Nash said.

Nash, one of just two Republicans on the state’s Legislative Advisory Commission, said he intends to further scrutinize the invoices. The LAC has the authority to review and grant requests for certain funds.

Others who testified before the House Oversight Committee took a similar approach. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who testified alongside Walz, retained a D.C. law firm to prepare for the hearing, though the billionaire paid for the counsel on his own dime.

Earlier this year, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said her city expected to pay up to $650,000 to an outside firm that helped her prepare for a similar oversight committee hearing on immigration. And Denver paid outside counsel $250,000 to advise Mayor Mike Johnston at the same congressional hearing where Wu testified.

Gibson Dunn, a top law firm that’s represented high-profile clients in congressional investigations, says these inquiries “present unique challenges distinct from civil litigation and Executive Branch investigations.” The firm recommends hiring counsel who have direct experience with congressional procedures to navigate them.

In his remarks before the House Oversight Committee, Walz stressed that the country’s immigration system is broken and said state and federal officials need to work together to fix it. The DFL governor mostly avoided engaging in heated exchanges, even when fellow Minnesotan and GOP House Majority Whip Emmer launched into a several-minute attack.

But Walz angered several Republicans on the committee when he refused to apologize for his claim that President Donald Trump is using federal immigration agents as a “modern-day Gestapo.”

“You’ve been asked three, four times if you would rescind that and you won’t,” Stauber said at the hearing. “Will you rescind it? This is like the fifth time, yes or no?”

In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune on Monday, Walz accused Republicans on the oversight committee of engaging in “theatrics” and using the June immigration hearing for “personal attacks.”

“I’m a little concerned for them. It’s just unhinged, a little bit,” Walz said. “There were unhinged members in that committee that need to maybe have a check, or their family member should check on why they got to that point.”