Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told Newsmax on Thursday that Minnesota's fraud scandal demands immediate prosecutions that reach beyond the "bottom" and into the ranks of the officials and organizers who enabled it.

Appearing on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Biggs said the public will only regain trust in government if there are consequences for wrongdoing.

"Well, I sure hope so," he said when asked whether the probe will lead to accountability. "There's been subpoenas for the grand jury for Gov. [Tim] Walz, Attorney General [Keith] Ellison, Mayor [Jacob] Frey, and they're going to come before a grand jury and answer questions."

But subpoenas without consequences are meaningless, the congressman said.

"These people have to be prosecuted," Biggs said.

He noted that cases have already reached "those on the bottom," which he described as "the people that are actually taking the money straight up and defrauding." He argued that prosecutors now need to identify who directed, covered for, or benefited from the alleged misconduct.

"The bottom line is this: You have to keep your investigation going, get all the way up to the top of that pyramid, and then people have to be arrested and prosecuted," he said. "That is how you get accountability. That's how you deter people from doing this again."

He also urged officials to recover taxpayer dollars, saying Congress needs to "claw the money back."

Biggs pointed to congressional testimony about federally funded groups that have come under scrutiny after viral reporting from independent journalist Nick Shirley cast doubt on their legitimacy.

"As Mr. Shirley testified yesterday and others have testified before us, none of these groups that have had their money defunded right now by HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services], none of them have been able to prove that they're legitimate businesses — not one," he said.

Pivoting to another variation on the accountability theme, Biggs argued that Congress should show the same resolve in enforcing subpoenas that he wants applied to the Minnesota fraud investigation.

He suggested that former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, could face jail time for defying congressional subpoenas.

"I see it as a very real possibility," Biggs said. "They've met the elements of a prima facie case already for criminal contempt of Congress."

Biggs said that finding should trigger swift action by House Republicans.

"That means that we should vote them out," he said. "That should happen today, quite frankly ... on the floor."

"Then it would go to the attorney general and the case is made," Biggs said. "I thought the documentation was written very well for the committee outlining the facts. And then when you apply the law to it, it's crystal clear that they willfully disobeyed the subpoena."

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