ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent last Friday promoting the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign against fraud in Minnesota. But when asked whether that same scrutiny should apply to an ICE prison purchase that cost the federal government hundreds of millions more than an earlier offer to the state, Bessent dismissed the question as a “waste of our time.”
The exchange highlighted a notable contradiction in the administration’s message: federal officials say they intend to follow suspicious money wherever it leads, while rejecting calls to examine a costly transaction involving their own government.
The controversy involves the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota. ICE purchased the vacant 1,600-bed prison from private prison company CoreCivic for about $496 million in August. However, records obtained by KARE 11 showed CoreCivic had offered the same facility to Minnesota for $75 million in 2025.
CoreCivic also has substantial financial ties to Trump-era Republican politics: the company donated $500,000 to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee, while its PAC and employees gave nearly $785,000 during the 2024 election cycle, with about $660,000 going to Republican candidates and committees.
Asked about the roughly $420 million difference during the administration’s fraud task force event, Bessent said he knew nothing about the transaction and added that questions diverting attention from criminal fraud were “a waste of our time.”
That response came shortly after Bessent declared that President Trump had made fighting fraud “a mandate” across the entire administration. Treasury’s own release said that “wherever the money leads, the full weight of government will follow.”
No evidence has established that the ICE purchase itself involved criminal fraud. But the enormous difference between the earlier $75 million offer and the federal government’s $496 million purchase has raised legitimate questions about how taxpayers’ money was spent.
DHS and CoreCivic dispute the suggestion that the figures are directly comparable. CoreCivic says the $75 million figure was not a formal appraisal and that the federal price reflected replacement costs, renovations, security upgrades and current construction expenses. The company said independent federal appraisers determined the property’s fair market value.
The timing nevertheless makes the contrast difficult to ignore. At the same Minnesota event, Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel and other officials repeatedly emphasized protecting taxpayers and pursuing fraud aggressively. Treasury said its anti-fraud campaign would use “every tool” available to hold wrongdoers accountable.
That standard may now invite an obvious question: if federal officials believe questionable spending deserves aggressive scrutiny, should transactions involving their own agencies receive the same examination?
Sources:
- Truthout – MBFC Rating
- U.S. Department of the Treasury – Government Primary Source
- CoreCivic – Corporate Primary Source
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