作者：[汉娜·拉比诺维茨]
更新于1小时17分钟前
最后更新：2026年2月25日，美国东部时间下午5:48
发布于2026年2月25日，美国东部时间下午4:32
[Image_1]
科林·麦克唐纳
科林·麦克唐纳/领英
在总统唐纳德·特朗普于国情咨文演讲中宣布对欺诈发起“战争”后的次日清晨，司法部高级检察官科林·麦克唐纳在参议院司法委员会上表示，他将坚定遵循司法部传统，仅以证据为核心。
“我是一名职业联邦检察官，”麦克唐纳称，“我遵循事实；我适用法律——这是我工作中唯一的两个考量因素。”
他的这番话概括了司法部的核心承诺，民主党和共和党政府时期的总检察长都曾反复引用这一承诺。但这番话并未直接回应他被问及的问题：即被任命领导司法部新成立的反欺诈部门的麦克唐纳，是否会听从特朗普的命令，起诉其认定的政敌。
“你现在身处一个高度政治化的部门，”委员会中的民主党参议员马齐·希罗诺警告道，“我们已经知道，总统将司法部视为他的私人律师事务所，帕姆·邦迪是他的律师。你处于这一链条的下游，我看不出你如何能声称自己保持独立，无论你可能多么希望如此。”
特朗普政府将广泛存在的欺诈指控作为其起诉工作的主要焦点，同时也将其作为批评民主党官员的政治工具。最引人注目的是，政府将矛头指向明尼苏达州的一起大规模欺诈丑闻，检察官估计该州被盗资金总额可能超过90亿美元。总统特别指责民主党官员允许该州成为“欺诈性洗钱活动的中心”。
麦克唐纳的职业生涯相对低调，直到一年前他带着妻子和五个孩子搬到华盛顿特区，辞去了在加利福尼亚州南区联邦检察官办公室长达十年的职位，转而加入副检察长托德·布兰奇的办公室。在那里，他的工作涵盖从执法问题到联合主持所谓的“武器化工作组”等各个方面。
今年1月，特朗普在Truth Social上宣布提名麦克唐纳为“美国司法部首位负责国家反欺诈执法的助理司法部长”，这是他新设立的一个部门，旨在“抓捕和阻止一直以来从美国人民那里窃取财富的欺诈者”。
新部门在麦克唐纳被提名前就已受到审查。司法部已有多个办公室负责调查刑事和民事欺诈案件，这引发了部分议员和法律专家对设立新部门必要性的质疑。
副总统JD·万斯在1月初对记者表示，该职位将类似于特别顾问的角色，但“由白宫直接运作，在我和美国总统的监督下进行”，专家们认为这将违背司法部长期以来避免政治干预的努力。
特朗普在演讲中称将领导“反欺诈战争”的万斯周三表示，此次行动将是一场“全政府行动”，包括财政部在内的其他联邦部门均将参与其中。
麦克唐纳试图在周三的听证会上缓解对工作重复的担忧，他表示其办公室将与司法部现有的欺诈部门形成“互补”，并最初专注于涉及医疗补助和SNAP（补充营养援助计划）资金滥用的案件——这两起案件均被指发生在明尼苏达州。他还指出，司法部的组织架构图显示他将直接向邦迪和布兰奇汇报，并承诺与联邦、州或地方合作伙伴“无论其政党归属如何”进行合作。
周三，没有参议员询问麦克唐纳万斯将在其办公室的工作中扮演何种角色。副总统当天稍晚在活动中表示，麦克唐纳“给很多人留下了深刻印象。他当然给我留下了深刻印象。”
麦克唐纳试图表现出非政治性的努力，却大多未被参议院民主党人理会，他们继续施压要求他明确表示不会听从总统的起诉要求。
“如果宪法确实要求总统确保法律得到忠实执行，那么如果他们不确保我们阻止这种欺诈行为，那将是失职。”共和党参议员阿什利·穆迪最终打断道，“对吗？”
“我同意这一点，参议员。”麦克唐纳回答。
本文已更新，添加了更多细节。
Meet the man Trump picked to pursue his war on fraud at the Justice Department
By [Hannah Rabinowitz]
Updated 1 hr 17 min ago
Updated Feb 25, 2026, 5:48 PM ET
PUBLISHED Feb 25, 2026, 4:32 PM ET
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Colin McDonald
Colin McDonald/LinkedIn
The morning after President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union address, senior Justice Department prosecutor Colin McDonald told the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he would steadfastly follow the department’s tradition to focus only on the evidence.
“I am a career federal prosecutor,” McDonald said. “I follow the facts; I apply the law — those are the two considerations that come into play for me.”
His comment paraphrased a promise that’s core to the Justice Department, cited constantly by attorneys general under both Democratic and Republican administrations. But it didn’t directly address what he was asked: Whether McDonald, who is tapped to run a new DOJ division tasked with rooting out fraud, would follow an order from Trump to prosecute one of his own perceived enemies.
“You are now placed in a highly politicized division,” one of the Democratic senators on the committee, Mazie Hirono, warned. “We already know that the president considers the Department of Justice to be his law firm, Pam Bondi to be his lawyer. You are down the chain and I don’t see how you sit there and tell us that you are going to be independent, as much as you might want to be.”
The Trump administration has made allegations of widespread fraud a main focus of their prosecution efforts, as well as a political tool to criticize Democratic officials. Most notably, the administration has focused on a wide-ranging fraud scandal in Minnesota that prosecutors estimate could total more than $9 billion in stolen funds. The president has specifically laid blame at the feet of Democratic officials for allowing the state to become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
McDonald’s career was relatively low profile until he moved with his wife and five children to Washington, DC, one year ago, leaving his decadelong post at the federal prosecutor’s office in California’s Southern District to work in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office. There, his work focused on everything from law enforcement issues to co-chairing the so-called Weaponization Working Group.
In January, Trump announced on Truth Social his nomination of McDonald as the “first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement, a new Division at the Department of Justice, which I created to catch and stop FRAUDSTERS that have been STEALING from the American People.”
The new division was under scrutiny before McDonald was even nominated. The Justice Department already has multiple offices that investigate criminal and civil fraud cases, leading some lawmakers and legal experts to question whether creating the new division is necessary.
And Vice President JD Vance told reporters in early January that the role will be like that of a special counsel, but “run out of the White House under the supervision of me and the president United States,” which experts said would run afoul to longstanding department efforts to stay separate from political interference.
Vance, who Trump said in his speech would lead the “war on fraud,” said Wednesday that the effort would be a “whole government approach” that included other federal departments, including the Treasury Department.
McDonald tried to ease concerns of duplicate efforts during the hearing Wednesday, saying that his office would be “complementary” of the department’s preexisting fraud sections and would initially focus on cases that involved abuses of Medicaid and SNAP funds — both of which are alleged to have taken place in Minnesota. He also pointed to a Justice Department organization chart that showed he would report directly to Bondi and Blanche, and pledged to work with federal, state or local partners “regardless of political party.”
None of the senators asked McDonald Wednesday what role Vance’s would play in his office’s efforts. The vice president said at an event later in the day that McDonald “impressed a lot of people. He certainly impressed me.”
McDonald’s attempts to appear non-political largely fell on deaf ears among Senate Democrats, who continued to push him to say definitively that he would not listen to prosecutorial demands from the president.
“If in fact the Constitution requires that the president take care that the laws be faithfully executed, it would be a dereliction of duty if they did not ensure that we stop this fraud,” Republican Sen. Ashley Moody eventually cut in. “Is that correct?”
“I agree with that, senator,” McDonald said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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