Trump’s ‘war on fraud’ announcement recalls plan for assistant attorney general who answers to Vance

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Donald Trump announced a “war on fraud,” a term that the administration has used in increasingly broad and deceptive ways.

The president made the declaration after referencing a welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota that was uncovered and prosecuted by the Biden administration.

Trump and his Republican allies have used the scandal as justification to swarm the North Star State with immigration officials, to attack the state’s large Somali community and to allege rampant corruption in Democrat-led states in general.

“I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President JD Vance,” Trump said during his address. “If we’re able to find enough fraud, we’ll actually have a balanced budget overnight.”

While Trump’s statement was not particularly detailed, it builds on a murky story that — at least ostensibly — features a plan to further subordinate the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the rule of law to the White House.

In January, just a day after an immigration agent shot and killed Minneapolis mother of three Renee Good, Vance in a briefing launched into a tirade about “rampant fraud” across the country supposedly driven by immigrants.

Then, he announced that the White House was creating a new assistant attorney general position that would have “nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud” — and would answer directly to himself and Trump, rather than DOJ leadership.

Such a role would be unprecedented. But it’s not entirely clear that Vance’s claim was true.

Later that month, Democracy Docket obtained a congressional notice seemingly contradicting the vice president’s claim.

In that document, Assistant Attorney General for Administration Jolene Ann Lauria told Rep. Hal Rodgers (R-Ky.), chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the DOJ, that the department was proposing “a reorganization to establish a new National Fraud Enforcement Division as a new Departmental component led by an Assistant Attorney General (AAG) appointed by the President with advice and consent of the Senate.”

According to an organization chart included in the notice, the new division’s leader would report to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as do the other 11 assistant attorney generals, and would target fraud targeting federal programs, benefits, and private enterprises and citizens.

Since then, the new position has largely faded from public attention.

Trump’s “war on fraud” announcement brings it back to the forefront — but offers little clarity on whether the assistant attorney general will actually answer to Vance and not Blanche.

Jim Saksa contributed reporting.