科林·麦克唐纳向参议院表示，司法部新部门将在全国范围内扩大明尼苏达州的打击力度，因为政府每年因欺诈损失高达5200亿美元
作者：艾玛·科尔顿
福克斯新闻
发布于2026年2月25日 美国东部时间晚上8:00
特朗普提名的欺诈问题主管候选人宣扬明尼苏达州打击欺诈的蓝图，以根除针对纳税人的持续诈骗
根据司法部提名候选人科林·麦克唐纳的说法，明尼苏达州的欺诈打击行动将成为司法部新办公室的蓝图，该办公室将专注于保护纳税人资金免受诈骗。
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在周三的提名听证会上，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普提名的、旨在担任美国”欺诈问题主管”的科林·麦克唐纳解释说，明尼苏达州的欺诈打击行动将成为司法部新办公室的蓝图，该办公室将专注于保护纳税人资金免受诈骗。
“明尼苏达州的工作至关重要。那里的美国检察官办公室及其工作人员在揭露渗透到我们纳税人资助项目中的欺诈问题方面发挥了关键作用，”他继续说道，”这种努力……正是国家欺诈执法部门将致力于实现的目标，并且将在司法部前所未有的规模上进行推广。”
据白宫称，特朗普在1月份任命麦克唐纳为提名候选人，就在几天前，司法部成立了新的全国欺诈执法部门，该部门将”调查、起诉和补救影响联邦政府的欺诈行为”。这一新办公室的成立是在一场大规模的明尼苏达州欺诈丑闻之后，据称该丑闻导致数亿美元通过福利和社会服务项目从纳税人那里被诈骗。
科林·麦克唐纳周三上午出现在参议院司法委员会面前，议员们就新办公室的运作方式、其独立性以及是否会与白宫保持独立等问题对他进行了质询。（Graeme Sloan/Getty Images）
“我将与监察长社区合作，”麦克唐纳继续说道，”与我们的联邦机构和联邦合作伙伴，以及州和地方合作伙伴合作，确保我们找到欺诈发生的地方，并拥有资源进行调查、起诉，并最终确保我们每年看到的针对这些项目的欺诈行为终止。”
麦克唐纳周三上午出现在参议院司法委员会面前，议员们就新办公室的运作方式、其独立性以及是否会与白宫保持独立等问题对他进行了质询。
特朗普周二晚上发表了国情咨文演讲，并宣布副总统JD·万斯将领导政府的”反欺诈战争”。
麦克唐纳解释说，他的办公室将致力于打击所有导致纳税人损失的欺诈行为，并引用政府问责局的数据称，每年有3200亿至5200亿美元的纳税人资金因欺诈而损失。
“我的承诺是不懈地建立一个部门，一个国家欺诈执法部门，让司法部没有无法处理的欺诈案件，无论大小，”他继续说道。
议员们最关心的是围绕奥巴马医改和老年人的欺诈问题。
共和党德克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁在询问麦克唐纳时指出，政府问责局无法调和2023纳税年度超过210亿美元的奥巴马医改市场补贴。
爱荷华州共和党参议员、参议院司法委员会主席查克·格拉斯利（左）和伊利诺伊州民主党参议员、参议院司法委员会排名成员迪克·杜宾在确认听证会上。（Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images）
高度编辑的审计发现明尼苏达州医疗补助存在广泛漏洞
“我承诺不懈地根除您所指出的这类欺诈行为，并确保本应流向这些项目的每一分钱都真正流向项目和这些项目的受益人，而不是欺诈者。这是我的承诺，”麦克唐纳在听证会上就《平价医疗法案》补贴周围可能存在的欺诈问题向科宁表示。
针对老年人的诈骗在整个听证会上也成为焦点。司法委员会主席查克·格拉斯利（R-爱荷华州）向麦克唐纳施压，要求其说明保护老年人免受诈骗的努力，并指出美国老年人每年因金融诈骗损失280亿美元。
欺诈问题主管候选人承诺，司法部将努力保护老年人免受日益高科技化的诈骗，这些诈骗往往包括使用人工智能来混淆和欺骗人们，并指出这种欺诈影响整个家庭。
明尼苏达州的优质学习中心被发现是该州所谓的儿童保育欺诈丑闻的中心。（Madelin Fuerste/Fox News）
“不仅仅是祖母和祖父，还有他们的家人也承受着这些针对他们的诈骗和欺诈行为的沉重负担，”他说，”我的一位祖母将在两天后年满89岁。她已经看到了这些……针对她的行为。这是司法部关注的重大问题，我们将使用所有可用工具来确保我们打击这个问题。”
大规模的明尼苏达州欺诈案在全国范围内引起了反响，联邦共和党议员重新呼吁加强对向各种项目（尤其是社会和福利机构）发放纳税人资金的监控。
奥兹博士详述明尼苏达州’欺诈武器化’，估计医疗补助欺诈总额达1000亿美元
特朗普在周二的国情咨文演讲中强调了这一欺诈问题，称加利福尼亚州、马萨诸塞州和缅因州的情况更为严重。
“当涉及到掠夺美国的腐败时——这确实是在掠夺美国——没有比明尼苏达州更令人震惊的例子了，那里索马里社区的成员据称从美国纳税人那里掠夺了约190亿美元。哦，我们掌握了所有信息，”特朗普周二表示。
“实际上，这个数字要高得多，加利福尼亚州、马萨诸塞州、缅因州和许多其他州的情况更糟。这种腐败正在撕裂国家的结构，而我们正在以您难以想象的力度解决这个问题，”他继续说道，并任命万斯为负责打击欺诈的政府领导。
当被要求就联邦欺诈打击工作提供更多评论时，白宫将福克斯数字部门引向了特朗普的国情咨文评论和麦克唐纳的证词。
联邦福利支出是欺诈的磁石——纳税人正在付出代价
万斯周三加入了福克斯新闻的《美国新闻室》，并表示他的努力将包括”全面的、整个政府的方法”来调查欺诈问题，并动员司法部和财政部领导财政记录调查。
“我们有一系列从未使用过的工具，总统和我几个月前讨论过这个问题，说’如果我们尽一切可能阻止针对美国纳税人的欺诈行为，会怎么样？’总统说，’好主意，我们来做’，我们将在明年非常积极地推进这个计划，”万斯说。
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Trump’s fraud czar nominee touts Minnesota blueprint to root out Obamacare fraud, senior scams
Colin McDonald tells Senate his new DOJ division will scale Minnesota’s crackdown nationwide as government loses up to $520B annually to fraud
By Emma Colton
Fox News
Published February 25, 2026 8:00pm EST
Trump’s fraud czar nominee touts Minnesota blueprint to root out persistent scams targeting taxpayers
The crackdown on fraud in Minnesota will serve as a blueprint for a new Department of Justice office focused on protecting taxpayer funds from scams, according to DOJ nominee Colin McDonald.
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The crackdown on fraud in Minnesota will serve as a blueprint for a new Department of Justice office focused on protecting taxpayer funds from scams, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as the nation’s “fraud czar” explained in his nomination hearing Wednesday.
“The work in Minnesota has been pivotal. The work of the U.S. Attorney’s office there, and the personnel there, has been pivotal to highlighting the problems of fraud that permeate our taxpayer funded programs,” nominee to serve as assistant attorney general for a new Justice Department division tasked with rooting out fraud, Colin McDonald, said Wednesday.
“That sort of effort … is what the National Fraud Enforcement Division will be looking to do and scale to an extent that we’ve not seen before within the Department of Justice,” he continued.
Trump tapped McDonald as the nominee in January, just days after establishing the Department of Justice’s new division for national fraud enforcement that will “investigate, prosecute, and remedy fraud affecting the Federal government,” according to the White House. The new office follows a sweeping Minnesota fraud scandal, where hundreds of millions of dollars was allegedly swindled from taxpayers through welfare and social services programs.
Colin McDonald appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, where lawmakers grilled the nominee about the new office, how it will operate and if it will operate independently of the White House.(Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)
“I will be working with the inspectors general community,” McDonald continued. “With our federal agencies and federal partners, with our state and local partners to ensure that we find the fraud where it’s occurring and that we have the resources to prosecute it, to investigate it and prosecute it, and ultimately ensure that the fraud that we’re seeing annually, perpetrated against these programs comes to an end.”
McDonald appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, where lawmakers grilled the nominee about the new office, how it will operate and if it will operate independently of the White House.
Trump delivered his State of the Union address Tuesday evening and announced Vice President JD Vance will lead the administration’s “war on fraud.”
McDonald explained that his office will work to tackle all fraud bleeding taxpayers, citing Government Accountability Office data that estimates between $320 billion to $520 billion in taxpayer funds is lost to fraud on an annual basis.
“My commitment is to work tirelessly to build a division, a national fraud enforcement division, where no fraud is too big for the Department of Justice, and no fraud is too small for the Department of Justice,” he continued.
At the top of lawmakers’ minds were fraud concerns surrounding Obamacare and senior citizens.
Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn cited that the Government Accountability Office could not reconcile over $21 billion in Obamacare marketplace subsidies in tax year 2023 during his questioning of McDonald.
Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, left, and Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, during a confirmation hearing.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
HEAVILY-REDACTED AUDIT FINDS MINNESOTA MEDICAID HAD WIDESPREAD VULNERABILITIES
“I commit to working tirelessly to root out the sort of fraud that you’ve identified there, and to make sure that every single dollar that’s supposed to go to these programs actually goes to the programs, to the beneficiaries, the intended beneficiaries of these programs, and not to fraudsters. That is my commitment,” McDonald told Cornyn during the hearing regarding potential fraud surrounding Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Scams targeting the elderly also took the spotlight throughout the hearing. Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pressed McDonald on his efforts to protect seniors from scams, noting that America’s seniors lose $28 billion annually to financial schemes.
The fraud czar nominee pledged that the DOJ would work to protect seniors from the increasingly high-tech scams, which often include using artificial intelligence to confuse and swindle people, noting that the fraud affects entire families.
Quality Learning Center in Minnesota was found at the center of an alleged childcare fraud scandal in the state.(Madelin Fuerste/Fox News)
“It’s not just the grandmothers and the grandfathers, it’s also their family members who bear the weight of these scams and the fraud that’s perpetrated against them,” he said. “My grandmother, one of them, turns 89 years old in two days. And she has seen these … sorts of efforts toward her. And it’s a major issue that the Department of Justice is focused on, and we will be using all available tools to ensure that we combat that problem.”
The massive Minnesota fraud case has reverberated across the nation, with federal Republican lawmakers reinvigorating calls to tighten and monitor the release of taxpayer funds to various programs, most notably social and welfare offices.
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Trump spotlighted the fraud in his State of the Union address Tuesday, claiming the scams are even worse in states such as California, Massachusetts, Maine.”
“When it comes to the corruption that is plundering — it really, it’s plundering America — there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. Oh, we have all the information,” Trump said Tuesday.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump delivers the first State of the Union address of his second term to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Seated behind him are Vice President JD Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA).(Kenny Holston /Pool via Reuters)
“And in actuality, the number is much higher than that, and California, Massachusetts, Maine and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn’t believe,” he continued, before naming Vance as the administration leader taking on fraud.
The White House referred Fox Digital to Trump’s State of the Union comments and McDonald’s testimony when approached for additional comment on the federal fraud crackdown efforts.
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Vance joined Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday, and said his efforts will include a “full, whole government approach” to investigating fraud concerns, and enlisting the Justice and Treasury Departments to lead probe on fiscal records.
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“There’s a whole host of tools that we have that have never been used, and the president and I talked about this a couple of months ago and said, ‘What if we just did everything that we could to stop the fraud that’s being committed against the American taxpayer?’ The president said, ‘Great idea, let’s do it,’ and we’re going to work on that very aggressively over the next year,” Vance said.
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