White House Announces New DOJ Fraud Division to Be Directly Supervised by the President

Overview

On January 8, 2026, the Vice President announced the creation of a new division for “national fraud enforcement” within the Department of Justice (“DOJ”). As proposed, the new division will be headed by a presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed Assistant Attorney General (“AAG”) who would—for the first time—“be run out of the White House under the supervision of [the Vice President] and the President of the United States.”[1] The White House released an initial fact sheet regarding the new division shortly after the Vice President’s speech.[2] The fact sheet itself was notably silent as to oversight of this new division.

Although details concerning the new division’s structure, staffing, and mandate have not yet been revealed, the White House’s announcement highlighted the following key points:

• Sweeping Authority to Conduct Nationwide Civil and Criminal Enforcement Targeting Fraud. The new division will investigate and prosecute criminal and civil fraud against federal government programs and benefits, businesses, nonprofits, and “private citizens nationwide.”[3] The new AAG will also “oversee multi-district and multi-agency fraud investigations,” which could include a number of agencies outside of the DOJ including the Department of Homeland Security, and “provide advice, assistance, and direction to the United States Attorneys’ Offices on fraud-related issues.”

• Supervised Directly by the President. Like other DOJ divisions, the new division will be led by a Senate-confirmed AAG. But the Vice President announced that, unlike other AAGs, the new AAG for Fraud will report directly to the President instead of to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General.

• Initial Focus on Social Services Fraud Allegations in Minnesota. The new division’s initial focus will be on alleged fraud involving government programs in Minnesota, but the White House has made clear that the new division will target fraud elsewhere in the country.[4]

• Appointment Imminent. A nominee has reportedly been selected, but not announced, and the nomination is expected in the coming days. Senate Majority Leader Thune has reportedly “promised [] swift confirmation for this official,”^[5] and senior Senate Republicans have already signaled support for the new role.^[6]

  • Existing statutory authority already authorizes the President to appoint the AAG with the advice and consent of the Senate.^[7]

  • Unlike U.S. Attorney nominations, the nomination of the new AAG will not be subject to the Senate’s Blue Slip rules that have delayed the confirmation of other nominees.[8]

The Current Structure of Federal Fraud Enforcement

The enforcement of the many federal statutes prohibiting various forms of fraud has long been a focus of DOJ’s criminal and civil efforts. As the chief federal law enforcement officers in their respective districts, each of the 93 presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorneys has the authority to assign the Assistant U.S. Attorneys working in their offices to pursue fraud within their judicial districts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Offices’ (“USAOs’”) local responsibility for fraud enforcement has traditionally been complemented by well-resourced specialized enforcement units based out of “Main Justice,” DOJ’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. with whom they share authority to enforce fraud statutes. The DOJ Criminal Division’s Fraud Section has long been one of the largest DOJ litigating components. As of January 2025, it was comprised of nearly 150 federal prosecutors focusing on foreign corruption, health care fraud, securities fraud, and government program fraud.[9] The Fraud Section’s specialized prosecutors have historically coordinated multi‑jurisdictional probes into complex fraud, supplemented prosecutions of fraud by local USAOs with additional resources, and, in some cases, independently investigated and prosecuted fraud. In parallel, the DOJ has a Civil Division Fraud Section, which has responsibility for civil False Claims Act enforcement, including through the DOJ-HHS False Claims Act Working Group,[10] among other fraud statutes.[11]

Historically, prosecutors from the USAOs and Main Justice pursuing fraud investigations have all been supervised by the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, to whom all USAOs and AAGs report. In significant matters, white-collar practitioners have appealed decisions by both USAOs and Main Justice prosecutors in criminal investigations to the Deputy Attorney General and, in rare cases, the Attorney General.

Implications for DOJ Enforcement Activity

Yesterday’s announcement has the potential to re-shape how the DOJ approaches matters involving allegations of fraud, and creates uncertainty regarding how ongoing fraud investigations and prosecutions within the scope of the new division’s mandate will be conducted, supervised, and coordinated with other DOJ prosecutors across the country.

The White House’s fact sheet announcing the new division suggests that the new AAG will exercise supervisory authority over federal fraud enforcement by other DOJ components, characterizing the position as “oversee[ing]” multi-district and multi-agency fraud investigations, and providing “direction” to USAOs on fraud-related issues. But significant questions about the functional responsibilities of the new position remain, including:

• Whether the new division will assume direct day-to-day control of fraud investigations and prosecutions, or instead generally exercise a more limited coordination or support role;

• Whether the new division will limit its attention to social services and government program fraud schemes, like those alleged in Minnesota and addressed in the White House fact sheet, or assume responsibility for a broader range of frauds such as tariff evasion and trade-related frauds that became a DOJ enforcement priority in 2025;

• Whether personnel within existing DOJ litigating components, such as the Fraud Section, will be temporarily detailed or permanently re-assigned to staff the new division, and whether the entire Fraud Section will be moved to the new division;

• Whether and how the new division will impact the work of the recently announced Trade Fraud Task Force;[12] and

• What role the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General will have in supervising prosecutions overseen by a new AAG who is supposed to report directly to the President.

The White House announcement signals a significant, and novel, reorganization of the DOJ’s enforcement apparatus, just months after other major structural changes implemented at DOJ in 2025.^[13] The reorganization may meaningfully impact ongoing enforcement efforts across affected DOJ components.[14]

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[1] Vice President JD Vance, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and the Vice President, at 6:05 (Jan. 8, 2026), available here.

[2] White House, Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes New Department of Justice Division for National Fraud Enforcement (Jan. 8, 2026), available here.

[3] Id.

[4] Vice President JD Vance, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and the Vice President, at 4:48 (Jan. 8, 2026), available here.

[5] Vice President JD Vance, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and the Vice President, at 5:36 (Jan. 8, 2026), available here.

[6] Press Release, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Grassley Welcomes Announcement of Assistant Attorney General for Fraud (Jan. 8, 2026), available here.

[7] 28 U.S.C. 506 (authorizing the appointment of 11 AAGs).

[8] Senator Chuck Grassley, Q&A: Blue Slips (Aug. 29, 2025), available here (clarifying that the blue slip policy applies to “lifetime appointments to the federal bench, as well as U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals,” rather than national Assistant Attorney General roles).

[9] See U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Fraud Section Year in Review 2024 (Jan. 2025), available here.

[10] See Paul, Weiss, DOJ and HHS Reestablish False Claims Act Working Group (July 9, 2025), available here.

[11] U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Civil Division Fraud Section, available here.

[12] U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Departments of Justice and Homeland Security Partnering on Cross-Agency Trade Fraud Task Force, (Aug. 29, 2025), available here.

[13] See U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and Performance Summary, (June 13, 2025) (detailing major reorganizations of divisions and litigating components across DOJ in FY 2025), available here.

[14] Suzanne Monyak, Justice Department Loses a Third of Career Leaders Under Trump, Bloomberg Law (Sept. 29, 2025), available here.