Veteran federal prosecutor Colin McDonald was confirmed by the Senate to lead a new Justice Department division focused on prosecuting fraud nationwide, setting up a fresh structure for federal anti-fraud enforcement even as critics pressed for safeguards against political influence, according to an Associated Press report.
The Senate voted 52-47 to confirm McDonald as assistant attorney general in charge of the new unit, which the Trump administration described as an effort to crack down on fraud that it said harms American taxpayers. The AP report said Bondi, then the attorney general, praised the nominee in a social media post, describing him as “an experienced, skilled, and tough prosecutor who will continue doing incredible work to root out fraud across America.”
McDonald’s nomination and confirmation drew scrutiny that centered on the White House’s role in investigations and prosecutions that are typically insulated from political pressure. The AP report said the unit was first cast by the Trump administration as something that would be “run out of the White House,” but that the administration later walked back the suggestion that McDonald would report directly to the White House rather than to senior Justice Department leaders.
Even after that clarification, the White House has made clear it intends to play a major role in shaping the division’s priorities, the report said. Vice President JD Vance was put in charge of the administration’s declared “war on fraud,” and the AP report noted that lawmakers’ concerns about political influence remained part of the confirmation context.
The AP report also described gaps and unanswered questions from McDonald’s confirmation hearing. It said McDonald told lawmakers he would pursue prosecutions “without fear or favor,” but he did not directly answer when pressed over whether he would follow an order from the president to open a specific investigation. The hearing, the report said, left open questions about how the National Fraud Enforcement Division would differ from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division fraud section.
The report placed that question in the context of the existing federal fraud track record. It said that last year the fraud section charged 265 people, up more than 10% from the year before, and that it led what the Justice Department characterized as the largest coordinated takedown of health care fraud schemes in its history, totaling nearly $15 billion in false claims.
The AP report said the new division also fits a broader push by the Trump administration to spotlight fraud across the country. It cited an earlier wave of allegations involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis that helped spur a large immigration crackdown in the city and led to widespread protests, while also noting that Minnesota had been under scrutiny for years for fraud, including a $300 million pandemic fraud case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future that produced dozens of convictions under the Biden and Trump administrations.
McDonald, the report said, most recently worked in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office at Justice Department headquarters, and previously served more than a decade as a federal prosecutor. In a confirmation hearing statement about the scale of fraud work, the report quoted McDonald saying, “The problem is massive,” adding, “And so President Trump and the attorney general were right to identify this as a place where we needed to put significantly more focus.”