Tim Walz was elected to Congress in 2006 and served there for 12 years before becoming governor. So when he was asked to return to Washington to testify in front of a congressional committee on June 12, 2025, many (including the Golden Turkey Committee) were surprised to hear he ran up a $430,000 bill from lawyers and lobbyists to prepare him for this one-time appearance. Spending $430,000 to prepare for one hearing in an environment where Walz spent 12 years of his career was a complete waste of money, making this Golden Turkey nomination a no-brainer.
Judging by the number of nominations Walz’s legal bills received from the public, this expenditure has a great shot at winning the 2025 Golden Turkey Award.
It all started when Rep. James Comey asked three governors, Walz, Gov. Pritzker of Illinois and Gov. Hochul of New York to appear before his committee in June to explain their sanctuary state policies. Most of the questions for Walz centered on his statement comparing ICE agents to a “modern-day Gestapo.” Several times in the hearing he was asked to apologize for his choice of words or walk back the statement. Each time he refused and doubled down.
It’s hard to understand how hiring out-of-state lawyers at $800 per hour was necessary to prepare Walz to defend his own statements and policies. An examination of the legal bills shows a lot of the money went for lawyers to get themselves familiar with Minnesota policy on immigration and to coordinate the message with the other two governors invited to testify that day.
As governor, Walz has access to hundreds of state employees who could have briefed him for his appearance on Capitol Hill. In fact, they probably joined the high-paid lawyers in the briefings, making this even more wasteful. Walz also took advantage of his access to Attorney General Keith Ellison and his staff to prepare for the hearing. Ellison is also a former member of Congress so his advice should have been enough.
Rep. Harry Niska criticized the expenditure in an interview with KSTP TV:
“Gov. Walz spent 12 years in Congress,” Niska said. “The attorney general (Keith Ellison) of our state spent 12 years in Congress. They know what hearings look like, sound like. They don’t need to hire Washington, D.C., lawyers at over $700 per hour to research that for them.”
Walz defended the expenditures, saying his own staff “didn’t have the expertise for this for what they were asking.” Walz administration staffers don’t have the expertise to testify about Walz administration policy? That sounds just preposterous enough to be nominated for a 2025 Golden Turkey Award.
