Washington AG Nick Brown accuses journalists of ‘harassment’ for investigating daycare fraud

In a statement obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, Brown said, “My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking.”

According to the Attorney General, his office is coordinating with the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to evaluate the claims being circulated online and the reported harassment aimed at daycare workers. Brown urged anyone contacted by the journalists to contact local law enforcement or report the incident to the state’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline or through the Attorney General’s reporting website.

Brown added, “Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”

“If you think fraud is happening, there are appropriate measures to report and investigate,” he said, pointing people toward DCYF resources. “And where fraud is substantiated and verified by law enforcement and regulatory agencies, people should be held accountable.”

However, many noted that the DCYF failed to notice discrepancies on its own website, including missing addresses, licenses, and other data, yet still received large sums in taxpayer funding, which is what the journalists are investigating. Brown’s statement follows a surge of investigations by independent journalists who say Washington may be dealing with the early warning signs of a daycare subsidy scandal similar to what was previously uncovered in Minnesota by journalist Nick Shirley, whose reporting highlighted alleged fraud in Minnesota daycare networks.

On Tuesday, a new investigative report claimed to uncover daycare fraud involving Somali-run home daycare operations in Washington State. Journalists Cam Higby and Jonathan Choe investigated the Dhagash Childcare, which is listed as a licensed daycare, but a resident at the address told the pair that no such childcare business had ever operated at the location. State records show the location as licensed and receiving taxpayer funds.

Choe spoke to a woman inside the home through the doorbell and asked whether the location was “Dhagash Family Childcare.” The woman responded: “No.” Choe then asked what childcare business operated there. “I don’t have childcare,” the woman replied. When asked whether the location had ever served as a daycare, she again responded: “No.”

Despite those denials, Washington records list the address as a daycare, and the business also appears listed as a daycare on Google. According to the investigation, the business received more than $210,000 in taxpayer funds in 2025 alone and is licensed to hold up to nine children.

A neighbor approached and told them the residents had contacted her to confront the journalists because they believed they were immigration enforcement. That interaction led Higby to raise additional questions about who may be operating the daycare, but the neighbor told them she had not seen daycare activity at the residence.

Higby noted that authorities had inspected the location in September and identified “multiple long-term, short-term, serious, and immediate risks to children,” but in the same month, the daycare received $22,000.

Choe and Higby’s investigation followed investigative reporter Carleen Johnson of The Center Square, who posted about visiting four Somali-run daycare homes in Federal Way, Washington, that receive taxpayer subsidies. “Just went to four Somali-run home daycare centers in Federal Way, WA that receive taxpayer subsidies,” she wrote. “Just like Nick Shirley found in MN, there were no children and no one willing to chat with this reporter. They threatened me with police.”

“This did not at all appear to be a legit child care center receiving WA taxpayer subsidies,” she wrote.

Kristen Mag, who assisted Choe and Higby in their investigation, raised broader systemic concerns, noting Washington has 539 childcare centers listing Somali as the primary language and “most don’t even give a street address.”

The reporting comes after it was revealed that Ubax Gardheere, a Somali candidate for King County Council in 2021, who previously threatened to blow up a school bus full of children and was later arrested for allegedly assaulting parents during a school drop-off, received campaign donations from daycare businesses in Minnesota.

Rather than address the allegations and promise an investigation, Governor Bob Ferguson and Seattle mayor-elect Katie Wilson, among other Washington officials, doubled down on support for the Somali community.