DOJ Fraud Staffers to Be Protected From New White House-Led Unit

The Justice Department plans to insulate its criminal and civil fraud sections from a White House-run enforcement initiative rather than merge them into the newly established fraud division, according to an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

“It has been decided that the Fraud Section will remain entirely intact under the current Criminal Division structure and its mission will remain the same,” Tysen Duva, the Criminal Division’s assistant attorney general, wrote to the office’s employees late Monday.

The new Senate-confirmed position, which Vice President JD Vance said Jan. 8 will be supervised directly by himself and President Donald Trump, will “be in addition to both the Criminal Division Fraud Section and the Civil Division Fraud Section,” Duva continued. “When a nominee is confirmed, that individual will hire attorneys to staff his/her own office.”

The White House’s rollout of a new DOJ assistant attorney general position for nationwide fraud—a response to allegations of fraud by Minneapolis daycare providers—omitted key details, resulting in widespread confusion.

The Criminal and Civil divisions’ fraud sections based in department headquarters have decades of experience coordinating the government program fraud investigations that Vance and an accompanying White House fact sheet suggested will be taken over by the new office.

The plan’s linkage with the Trump administration’s rhetoric around the Minnesota Somali immigrant community prompted some former DOJ officials to dismiss the effort as a publicity stunt that wouldn’t actually supplant existing department litigating structures.

Duva told employees Monday that his division “will look forward to establishing a collaborative partnership with the new AAG-Fraud, such that we can assist and leverage our experience to help identify, investigate, and eliminate fraud of all kinds throughout our country.”

There remain many questions about how the new division will be staffed and how direct White House oversight would impact its prosecutions.

Duva was sworn in Dec. 23 to head the Criminal Division, after his acting predecessor protected it from politicization and case reversals that have taken place elsewhere in the department.

“I am committed to supporting the great work that you are already doing in this area,” Duva’s email said.

It’s not known if the Civil Division’s fraud section, which has wide authority to recover taxpayer dollars by investigating improper Medicare and Medicaid payments, received a similar message from their top official.

DOJ representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.