Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had chosen someone to serve as a new assistant attorney general with a focus on combating fraud nationwide.
“We have chosen a person who’s very tough, very smart, very fair,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He said the successful candidate would be announced soon.
Rights advocates and critics say the administration is using fraud allegations as an excuse to target immigrants and political opponents. They also cite his pardons for people with past fraud convictions.
The White House said last week it was creating a new division at the Department of Justice to combat what it called “rampant” fraud.
The new assistant attorney general will be responsible for leading the Justice department’s efforts to probe, prosecute and remedy fraud affecting the federal government, federally funded programs and private citizens, the White House says.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has singled out Minnesota over what it says is fraud by immigrants in the welfare system and social-service programs.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson in Washington and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto;Editing by David Ljunggren)
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