White House Signals Escalated Fraud Enforcement

At a White House press briefing on Thursday, January 8, 2026, Vice President JD Vance outlined a nationwide fraud enforcement initiative anchored by a new Senate-confirmed Department of Justice (DOJ) leadership position that the Vice President said will be “run out of the White House” and report directly to President Trump and the Vice President. The new Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for DOJ’s “Division for National Fraud Enforcement” will be announced “in the next few days,” with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) promising a “swift confirmation.”

A companion White House fact sheet describes a “new division” within the DOJ focused broadly on national fraud enforcement. Per the fact sheet, the division will enforce both criminal and civil laws against “fraud targeting Federal government programs, Federally funded benefits, businesses, nonprofits, and private citizens nationwide.” It will be tasked with coordinating multi-district, multi-agency fraud investigations, advising and directing U.S. Attorneys’ Offices on fraud-related issues and proposing legislative and regulatory reforms to address systemic vulnerabilities. Although the current focus is Minnesota, both Vice President Vance and the accompanying fact sheet emphasized a nationwide approach.

As described in our prior client alert, in a May 12, 2025, “white-collar enforcement plan,” DOJ identified and emphasized procurement, health care and federal program fraud as top criminal priorities. The administration has also aggressively pursued civil False Claims Act enforcement in health care and other areas. Thursday’s new announcement would seem to reaffirm its focus on fraud enforcement—leveraging the model of cross-agency cases in Minnesota to the entire nation.

Bottom Line

The White House’s announcement reinforces the administration’s commitment to white collar enforcement but raises several questions.

• First, it is unclear who will fill this new AAG position. Will the position have prosecutorial authority and traditional DOJ reporting lines? Or, as Vice President Vance suggested, will the AAG report directly to the White House, marking a significant shift in DOJ chain of command?
• Second, it is unclear how this will impact existing DOJ sections and units at Main Justice that already focus on criminal and civil fraud prosecutions, such as DOJ’s Criminal and Civil Fraud Sections. Will existing DOJ sections or career prosecutors be assigned to the new AAG and its division? Will the DOJ or White House direct the hiring of prosecutors specifically assigned to the new division? Will the new AAG coordinate existing cross-agency task forces or form new ones?
• Third, the announcement’s focus on fraud affecting taxpayer funds leaves unanswered questions about who sets the new division’s prosecutorial priorities—the DOJ or the White House, or both.

While these questions will be answered over time, it is already clear that the announcement signals increased focus on fraud enforcement across federal grants and health care, childcare and social services, potentially using the high-profile Minnesota case as an initial template.

The private sector should take the DOJ’s new position seriously, as a signal of the administration’s commitment to aggressive enforcement against fraud involving U.S. federal funding, and should proactively ensure that compliance programs and other controls are adequately resourced to mitigate the risk of enforcement.