MaddowBlog-The problem(s) with the White House's newly announced 'fraud czar'

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Having an assistant AG report to the West Wing rather than Pam Bondi adds new weight to worries the DOJ is in crisis.

As the White House announces a “fraud czar,” remember: the prosecutor won’t look into things such as
- Trump’s fraudulent “university”
- Trump’s fraudulent charitable foundation
- the Trump Organization, which engaged in systemic fraud
They mean fraud from *other* people.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-30T19:59:50.104Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/the-problems-with-the-white-houses-newly-announced-fraud-czar

According to the Ohio Republican, this prosecutor would have “all the authority of a special counsel” and would focus exclusively on fraud investigations. Vance also said this person’s work would be “run out of the White House” instead of the Justice Department, and the prosecutor would report to him and Donald Trump, instead of to the attorney general.

This week, the president chose someone to fill the position. Time magazine reported:

President Donald Trump has nominated a federal prosecutor to a newly created role of fraud investigator after the Trump Administration urged the Justice Department to investigate fraud in Democrat-led states.

If confirmed by the Senate, Colin McDonald would lead a new DOJ unit as ‘first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement,’ Trump announced.

Some conservative outlets started referring to McDonald as the nation’s first “fraud czar,” and it wasn’t long before Team Trump embraced the label.

It’s probably worth clarifying the point of the position. When the White House refers to “fraud” in this context, it’s not talking about con artists fleecing unwitting or unwary consumers, such as the president’s scandal-plagued “Trump University” scam. It’s also not talking about entities such as Trump’s fraudulent charitable foundation, or the Trump Organization itself, which was found to have engaged in systemic fraud.

Rather, when Trump announced plans to nominate McDonald, the president was talking about other people who might’ve committed fraud through federal social insurance programs......

Trump spent much of last year firing prosecutors who failed to follow his corrupt directives, installing unqualified partisan loyalists in positions of authority, and barking orders over social media to Attorney General Pam Bondi about who among his perceived enemies should face federal law enforcement investigation.

As The Wall Street Journal summarized in November, this is a Justice Department in which the president, not the attorney general, “calls the shots.”

But having an assistant AG report to the West Wing, instead of to Bondi, adds fresh weight to concerns that the Justice Department is an institution in crisis.