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

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead a new Justice Department division dedicated to rooting out fraud said Wednesday he would 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 proposed already prosecuted by the agency’s Criminal Division but because the White House has suggested it will have an unusual role in overseeing the new division’s work.

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

McDonald didn’t directly answer when pressed during his confirmation hearing Wednesday whether he would follow an order from the president to open a certain investigation. McDonald, a seasoned prosecutor who works in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office, would only say that he follows the facts and applies the law in all cases.

“The vision that we have is a division that is large enough where no fraud is too big, and no fraud is too small, so that we can reach all actors within the chain of criminal culpability and no one more than that,” McDonald said. “Those are the ones that we are going to be looking after, investigating and following the facts — without fear or favor.”

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

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

Federal prosecutors have been scrutinizing staggering amounts of fraud in Minnesota for years and dozens of defendants have been charged — most of them of Somali descent — under the Biden and Trump administrations. But the scope of the alleged fraud came under an intense spotlight in recent months during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. A federal prosecutor has said that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.

If confirmed, McDonald could immediately face a challenge in recruiting prosecutors to investigate fraud as the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has been gutted by resignations in the wake of high-profile fatal shootings of civilians by federal agents during the immigration enforcement surge. Among those who have resigned during a period of tension in the office over the Justice Department’s response to the shootings is Joseph Thompson, the prosecutor who had been leading the sprawling Minnesota fraud probe.

Critics have questioned the true purpose of the new division, given that the department already prosecutes fraud through its Criminal Division. The division’s fraud section last year charged 265 people, up more than 10% from the year before. Those cases amounted to more than $16 billion in intended fraud losses, a record high for the section and more than double the total from 2024.

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

“The problem is massive,” McDonald said. “And so President Trump and the attorney general were right to identify this as a place where we needed to put significantly more focus.”