By proclaiming a “golden age of America” in his State of the Union address, President Trump rightly focused on his initiatives to solve the problems of the Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations that undermine the physical and economic security of the United States. One of those initiatives is Trump’s war on fraud, which the president says is intended to root out and fix the “corruption that is tearing the fabric of our nation apart.”
Led by Vice President J.D. Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Colin McDonald, Trump’s nominee for the newly created federal post of Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division, Trump’s war will be waged aggressively. As the president put it, “We don’t play games.”
But to win the war against fraud, the Trump administration must force the one-party institutionalists at the Justice Department to change course and protect a key ally in the war against fraud: whistleblowers. Despite being treated as pariahs for decades by the Justice Department’s elite careerists, whistleblowers play an important role in recovering taxpayer money from entities that defraud the government. Whistleblowers play a crucial role under the False Claims Act, which has been used since 1986 to recover $85 billion in taxpayer money. Just last year, the government recovered more than $6.8 billion under the False Claims Act – the largest single-year recovery in its history.
Unfortunately, parts of the Justice Department did not receive Trump’s memo. This is especially true for appellate attorneys in the DOJ’s Civil Division, which has investigative and litigation responsibilities under the False Claims Act.
The Civil Division is pursuing policies that undermine Trump’s war on fraud. How? This policy undermines whistleblowers – the foot soldiers in the trenches – who expose and litigate fraud claims on behalf of the Department of Justice. The Civil Division asserts that it has unfettered discretion to dismiss any anti-fraud lawsuit brought by a whistleblower under the False Claims Act merely by deciding that the lawsuit will not advance the government’s interests—whatever that means. The Civil Division claims that it can make this decision without the weight of evidence and without taking into account the underlying facts. That’s hard to square with the Supreme Court’s 2023 8-1 decision in U.S. ex rel. Polansky v. Exec. Health Res., Inc., which ruled that the Department of Justice does not have such unfettered dismissal discretion.
Vice President J.D. Vance looks on as Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz speaks about combating fraud at the White House Complex in Washington, DC, on February 25, 2026. (Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images)
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Even more problematic, the Civil Division’s continuation of the anti-whistleblower policies of Bush, Obama, and Biden are undermining the Trump administration’s efforts to combat fraud. Despite years of hard work and significant money invested by whistleblowers, the Civil Division claims it can pull the rug out from under whistleblowers at any time, for any reason, or for no reason. This arbitrary Civil Division policy makes it far less likely that whistleblowers will engage in Trump’s war on fraud.
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Targets of the Trump administration’s fraud enforcement include Somali daycare centers, university DEI programs, and other examples of corruption actively promoted by Democrats. A whistleblower who exposes such fraudulent and illegal activities does so at significant personal risk. But what whistleblower would knowingly take this risk if her action under the False Claims Act were subject to Civil Division policy and any lawsuit could be dismissed at any time, for any reason, or for no reason?
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