“When MDE stopped payments, Feeding our Future hit back with accusations of racism and a sham lawsuit. Because of Feeding our Future’s misrepresentations in that lawsuit, a court instructed the payments to continue,” the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) said this week after 48 people were charged for allegedly defrauding federal meals programs that MDE administers at the state level.

Gov. Tim Walz repeated these claims during a press conference Thursday, going so far as to suggest that the judge who ordered the payments to continue should be investigated.

“I would hope there would be an investigation into that,” Walz told the media, saying he was “speechless” and found it “unbelievable that this ruling would come down.”

In an exceedingly rare move, the Minnesota Judicial Branch issued a statement on behalf of that judge, John H. Guthmann, late Friday afternoon, debunking the Walz administration’s narrative.

“As the public court record and Judge Guthmann’s orders make plain, Judge Guthmann never issued an order requiring the MN Department of Education to resume food reimbursement payments to FOF. The Department of Education voluntarily resumed payments and informed the court that FOF resolved the ‘serious deficiencies’ that prompted it to suspend payments temporarily. All of the MN Department of Education food reimbursement payments to FOF were made voluntarily, without any court order,” the statement said.