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Vice President J.D. Vance announced Thursday that the Trump administration will create a new assistant attorney general position tasked with investigating fraud across federal programs, beginning with the expanding scandal in Minnesota, which prosecutors say may involve more than $9 billion in stolen taxpayer funds.
“This is the person who is going to make sure we stop defrauding the American people,” Vance said during a White House press briefing. The new official, he said, will have nationwide jurisdiction over fraud cases and report directly to President Trump and the vice president.
In a break from tradition, Vance said the position will not be housed within the Department of Justice but will instead be run from the White House, coordinating with federal law enforcement and agencies across the administration.
The nominee will require Senate confirmation, and Vance indicated an announcement could come “within days.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has reportedly promised “swift confirmation” for the nominee, who will serve through the end of the Trump administration.
The new role is being established as part of what officials are calling an “administration-wide fraud response” following a wave of revelations about massive theft within federally funded state programs.
Vance said Minnesota will be the first focus, citing evidence of deep-seated corruption across multiple agencies.
“Minnesota is where we start,” Vance said. “We’re not going to allow this scale of fraud to go unanswered anywhere in America.”
The move comes as President Trump intensifies his campaign against what he calls “the blue-state fraud machine.”
Earlier this week, the administration froze more than $10 billion in federal social-service funding for Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois, and Colorado, citing widespread waste and abuse.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already suspended all childcare payments to Minnesota.
“The best way to help poor families is to end the fraud so the money that’s available actually reaches them,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told CBS News on Wednesday. “And that’s what we’re doing.”
According to federal prosecutors, at least 90 individuals have been charged in Minnesota since 2021 for stealing funds from programs meant for seniors, autistic children, and low-income families. Investigators say fraudulent operations often posed as daycare centers or meal providers and submitted fake claims to receive government reimbursements.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has said his panel is coordinating with the administration’s new task force, adding that Minnesota’s fraud network “represents the largest abuse of federal social funding in modern U.S. history.”
The scandal has fueled sharp exchanges on Capitol Hill. During Wednesday’s Oversight hearing, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) confronted a Democratic witness over the statistical dependence of Minnesota’s Somali community on welfare programs, citing government data showing that 54 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive food stamps compared to 7 percent of native-born households.
The political fallout has been especially severe in Minnesota, where Gov. Tim Walz is already facing bipartisan criticism for his handling of the scandal and recently announced he will not seek re-election.
The fraud allegations have expanded beyond the well-known Feeding Our Future scheme to include housing and autism-related grants, deepening what federal officials now describe as a “culture of systemic exploitation.”
Vance said Thursday that the new assistant attorney general will have full investigative power, including subpoena authority and coordination rights with federal agencies such as the FBI, DHS, and HHS Inspector General’s Office.
“The days of pretending this is an isolated problem are over,” Vance said. “What happened in Minnesota will be investigated to the fullest extent — and those responsible, from the top down, will face justice.”
