Vice President Vance Announces White House-Led Assistant Attorney General and Nationwide Fraud Task Force Focused on Minnesota Scandal
Vice President JD Vance announced a Senate-confirmed assistant attorney general and interagency task force to probe alleged widespread fraud in Minnesota and other states nationwide.
Overview
Who: Vice President JD Vance and President Trump will oversee a new assistant attorney general role and interagency task force to coordinate federal fraud investigations.
What: Administration creating a Senate-confirmed assistant attorney general post and a major interagency task force to investigate alleged fraud in federally backed social-service programs.
Where: Efforts will begin focused on Minnesota — where prosecutors estimate fraud could top $9 billion — but the task force will investigate other states nationwide.
When: Vance announced the initiative at a White House briefing Thursday, saying a nominee for the role may be announced "within the next few days" for swift Senate confirmation.
How/Why: The administration cites widespread alleged fraud in programs such as childcare, nutrition and housing, and has frozen certain federal funds while pursuing subpoenas, indictments and prosecutions.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources present this report neutrally: they attribute claims and counterclaims, include factual context (prosecutors' $9 billion estimate, charges filed), and provide direct quotes from officials (Vance, RFK Jr.) and a rebuttal from Gov. Walz. Editorial language is minimal; disputed figures and policy actions are shown as source content rather than framed assertions.
Sources (4)
FAQ
The effort will initially target alleged fraud in federally backed social-service programs in Minnesota, including childcare assistance, children’s nutrition programs linked to the “Feeding Our Future” case, and housing-related services such as the Housing Stability Services Program, before expanding to similar schemes in other states.
Federal prosecutors have estimated that social-services-related fraud in Minnesota could total as much as $9 billion, though Governor Tim Walz has disputed that figure.
The new assistant attorney general will be a Senate-confirmed, White House-based official with nationwide jurisdiction over fraud in federally backed programs, reporting directly to Vice President Vance and President Trump while coordinating a major interagency task force.
In addition to Justice Department subpoenas and indictments, the Department of Homeland Security has sent agents to Minnesota, and some federal agencies have paused certain grants and funds to the state while investigations proceed.
Vice President Vance and other Republicans accuse Governor Walz of enabling or ignoring large-scale fraud in Minnesota’s social-service programs, with Vance calling him “a joke” and asserting that the new assistant attorney general will determine whether Walz knew about or even participated in the schemes, criticisms Walz and Democrats reject.
History
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