BOSTON – Less than three weeks out from Election Day, Gov. Maura Healey faced renewed questions about a former aide who was arrested and charged with public benefit fraud Wednesday.
LaMar Cook, who was deputy director of Healey’s western Mass. office until his firing last year, has pleaded not guilty to state drug trafficking and gun charges stemming from his alleged involvement in cocaine trafficking. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors arrested Cook and brought charges alleging fraudulent access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and wire fraud.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley’s office said Cook allegedly received almost $550 per month while he was on a court-ordered pretrial release in connection to his alleged cocaine trafficking and firearm charges. Cook was released after appearing in court Wednesday, according to the court docket.
Cook allegedly applied for SNAP benefits in April, after he was fired in October 2025 in the wake of his arrest on drug and gun charges, and falsely claimed that he had no income and less than $100 in his bank account, according to Foley’s office. Cook also allegedly had at least one bank account with more than $8,000 in it the day he applied for SNAP and he received thousands of additional dollars – including several payments totaling approximately $12,000 from his mother, who had won about $1 million in the state Lottery earlier this year.
Foley’s office charged that Cook used SNAP benefits at grocery and retail stores across the state and during a July 2026 trip to Florida. The Boston Herald reported in July that Cook was spending with a taxpayer-funded EBT card near Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
“What’s being portrayed as some ‘welfare golden parachute’ is really just a mix of my earned vacation pay, my mom’s lottery winnings, and a SunBucks EBT card, all being tied together to create a headline,” Cook said in a July Facebook post.
Foley, appointed by President Donald Trump’s administration, criticized Healey’s administration for not stopping the alleged fraud.
“What kind of system allows for someone like this defendant to receive taxpayer funded benefits?” Foley said in a statement. “I find it disturbing that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could not prevent this from happening.”
Healey told reporters Wednesday that it’s “really good” Cook has been charged while noting SNAP is a “federal program.”
“These are federal taxpayer dollars, and the only reason he was receiving them is because he was eligible under the federal system,” Healey said. “So, I’m glad to see the U.S. attorney’s office take action and hold this guy accountable and continue to prosecute him.”
SNAP is a federal program that the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance administers.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Minogue pounced on the news, holding a press conference outside the State House hours after the new charges were announced. He said the Cook charges represent another example of a “lack of accountability in Maura Healey and her record as governor.”
“If they can’t manage a direct person working for her, how do we expect them to manage all the $70 billion contracts that are being done?” Minogue said. “There was no accountability of it.”
Asked by a reporter about her decision to hire Cook given his criminal record, Healey said, “Look, as soon as I learned about this, I took immediate action and fired him.”
“I think, before he was even indicted, and I continue to say he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” the governor said.
Minogue also criticized Healey for not providing identities of those who receive SNAP to the federal government. He said the state receives $3 billion in SNAP for about one million residents and “the likelihood is there we do have people that are fraudulently getting these benefits, and our taxpayers do not give money on SNAP to illegal immigrants.”
Trump has warned he would withhold SNAP funds from Massachusetts and other Democratic-led states unless they provide certain information about those receiving benefits. Healey has resisted those calls, saying it punishes residents like families, seniors, children and people with disabilities.