Trump administration creates new position to crack down on state fraud

The Trump administration is creating a new assistant attorney general position to investigate alleged fraud across states such as the level of fraud seen in Minnesota’s social services. 

Vice President J.D. Vance announced the new position at the White House press briefing on Thursday. He said the person who has been selected, but so far is unnamed, will initially focus on fraud in Minnesota.

But Mr. Vance said it will become “a nationwide effort, because unfortunately, the American people have been defrauded in a very nationwide way.”

“We know that the fraud isn’t just happening in Minneapolis. It’s also happening in states like Ohio. It’s happening in states like California,” Mr. Vance said. 

“This is the person who is going to make sure that we stop defrauding the American people,” he said. 

The vice president said the new position will be run out of the White House and supervised by himself and President Trump. He said the new position will be responsible for overseeing an interagency effort from the Trump administration.

Mr. Vance said the position’s goal is to “prosecute the bad guys, and do it as swiftly and efficiently as possible,” adding that the new assistant attorney general will have nationwide jurisdiction over fraud. 

The administration will name the person for the role in the coming days, and Mr. Vance said he’s spoken to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, about the position.

Mr. Thune promised “swift confirmation,” the vice president said. 

Mr. Vance compared the post to a special counsel, which has the powers to prosecute, subpoena and pursue criminal allegations. However, there are constitutional questions surrounding a special counsel appointment because they are not confirmed by the Senate, unlike assistant attorneys general. 

A long-running series of fraud allegations in Minnesota has dominated the national spotlight amid charges from Republicans that the state’s Democratic leaders, including Gov. Tim Walz, failed to oversee federal aid programs that were supposed to feed hungry children and support child care centers. 

Federal prosecutors allege that hundreds of millions of dollars intended for nutrition and social services were hijacked by false claims, largely by Somali immigrants. Minneapolis has one of the largest Somali populations in the country. 

More than 90 people have faced fraud charges in Minnesota. 

Amid fallout from the probe, Mr. Walz announced this week that he won’t seek reelection for a third term. 

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced it had frozen more than $10 billion in federal child care, family assistance and social service funds for five Democratic-led states over fraud concerns. The states were California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.