Trump’s pick to lead new Justice Department unit comes under scrutiny as president declares ‘war on fraud’

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead a new Justice Department division dedicated to cracking down on fraud said Wednesday he will pursue prosecutions “without fear or favor” as questions grow about how the new unit will operate free of political influence from a White House that has declared a “war on fraud.”

The creation of the National Fraud Division raised eyebrows not only because fraud is already being prosecuted by the agency’s criminal division, but because the White House has indicated it will have an unusual role in overseeing the work of the new division.

The nomination of Colin McDonald to serve as first assistant attorney general in charge of the new division comes as the Trump administration has focused new attention on allegations of widespread fraud in Minnesota. During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump announced that Vice President J.D. Vance would lead the “war on fraud,” accusing members of Minnesota’s Somali community of “looting” billions from American taxpayers.

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When pressed during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, McDonald did not directly answer whether he would follow an order from the president to open a specific investigation. McDonald, a veteran prosecutor who works in the office of Deputy District Attorney Todd Blanche, says only that he follows the facts and applies the law in every case.

“The vision that we have is a large enough segmentation where no fraud is too big, no fraud is too small, so that we can get to all the actors in the chain of criminal responsibility and no more,” MacDonald said. “These are the ones we will take care of and investigate and pursue the facts without fear or favour.”

Even for an administration that has broken down many of the barriers designed to insulate the Justice Department from White House influence, Vance’s announcement last January that the new assistant attorney general for fraud would report directly to the White House came as a shock to many in the department.

The department has since indicated that McDonald will instead report to the deputy district attorney — like all other department heads — though his confirmation hearing left open many questions about exactly what role Vance will play in overseeing investigations and prosecutions.

Federal prosecutors have been scrutinizing massive amounts of fraud in Minnesota for years, and dozens of defendants — most of them of Somali descent — have been indicted under the Biden and Trump administrations. But the scope of the alleged fraud has been brought into sharp focus in recent months during the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that have supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen, a federal prosecutor said.

If confirmed, McDonald could immediately face a challenge in appointing prosecutors to investigate fraud, as the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota has been hit by resignations in the wake of fatal shootings of civilians by federal agents during increased immigration enforcement. Among those who resigned during a period of tension in the office over the Justice Department’s response to the shooting was Joseph Thompson, the prosecutor who was leading the sprawling fraud investigation in Minnesota.

Critics have questioned the true purpose of the new department, given that the department already pursues fraud through its criminal division. Last year, the department’s fraud division charged 265 people, an increase of more than 10% from the previous year. These cases amounted to more than $16 billion in intended fraud losses, a record for the department and more than double the total as of 2024.

Even with these successes, MacDonald told the committee that there is much more work to be done “to ensure that our taxpayer-funded programs are fraud-free.”

“The problem is huge,” MacDonald said. “And so President Trump and the Attorney General were right to identify this as a place where we need to focus dramatically more.”