Trump administration says it is creating new DOJ division to tackle fraud
By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration said on Thursday it would create a new division at the U.S. Justice Department to combat what the White House called “rampant” fraud across the country.
Rights advocates and critics said the Trump administration was using the fraud allegations as an excuse to target immigrants and political opponents. They also dismissed Trump’s ability to fight fraud, citing Trump’s past pardons for those facing fraud convictions.
“To combat the widespread and pervasive problem of fraud in the United States, the Department of Justice’s new division for national fraud enforcement will enforce federal criminal and civil laws against fraud targeting federal government programs, federally funded assistance, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and private citizens across the country,” the White House said in a statement. he said.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has targeted Minnesota, alleging widespread fraud by immigrants in its social service system and social service programs.
Trump administration officials have frequently and harshly attacked the Somali community in the state, the nation’s largest. Rights and immigration advocates say Trump is exaggerating isolated examples and using them to engage in what they call federal overreach.
The deputy attorney general for the Justice Department’s new division will be responsible for leading the department’s efforts to investigate, prosecute and remediate fraud affecting the federal government, federally funded programs and private citizens, the White House said.
The official will advise the U.S. attorney general and deputy attorney general “on matters involving significant, high-impact fraud investigations and prosecutions and related policy issues,” the White House said.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration said it would freeze more than $10 billion in federal child care and family assistance funding to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, citing what the administration called fraud concerns. The states later sued the Trump administration.
The administration has threatened federal funding cuts to organizations and states over issues ranging from allegations of fraud in programs in Democratic-run states to diversity initiatives to pro-Palestinian university protests against U.S. ally Israel’s attack on Gaza.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
