President Donald Trump’s nominee for a new Justice Department fraud division said Wednesday he would pursue prosecutions “without fear or favor,” even as lawmakers and department officials raised questions about whether the planned unit could operate independently of White House influence.
The nomination involves Colin McDonald, who would serve as the first assistant attorney general heading the proposed National Fraud Enforcement Division. The proposal has drawn attention because fraud cases are already prosecuted within the department’s Criminal Division, and because White House officials have suggested the new division could play an unusual role in oversight tied to the administration’s messaging campaign around fraud.
The division would be part of the Justice Department’s internal structure, but questions have focused on lines of authority after President Trump declared a “war on fraud” and appointed Vice President JD Vance to lead that effort. During his State of the Union address Tuesday, Trump announced that Vance would lead the “war on fraud,” accusing members of Minnesota’s Somali community of having “pillaged” billions from American taxpayers.
McDonald did not directly answer when pressed during his confirmation hearing Wednesday about whether he would follow a presidential order to open a particular investigation. Instead, he told lawmakers 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.”
Federal prosecutors have investigated alleged fraud in Minnesota for years, with dozens of defendants charged under both the Biden and Trump administrations, according to the reporting. The scope of the allegations has drawn increased attention in recent months during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, where a federal prosecutor said that half or more of roughly $18 billion in federal funds supporting 14 programs since 2018 may have been stolen.
McDonald’s nomination also arrives as staffing in the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has been disrupted. The reporting cited resignations following tension over the Justice Department’s response to high-profile fatal shootings of civilians by federal agents during the immigration enforcement surge, including Joseph Thompson, the prosecutor previously leading the sprawling Minnesota fraud probe. If confirmed, McDonald could face immediate challenges recruiting prosecutors to pursue fraud investigations.
Critics have questioned the true purpose of creating a new fraud division, given that the department already prosecutes fraud through its Criminal Division. The reporting said that the division’s fraud section last year charged 265 people—more than 10% higher than the year before—and that the cases involved 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 results, McDonald told the committee that more work remained to ensure taxpayer-funded programs are free of fraud. “The problem is massive,” he 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.”