Vance says federal task force will find criminal wrongdoing in state welfare fraud

Vice President JD Vance said federal investigators will find criminal wrongdoing tied to alleged taxpayer-funded welfare fraud in states including California.

Vance told Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany that the administration's anti-fraud task force is examining whether government officials enabled the alleged scams. He warned that anyone who covered up the abuse should go to prison.

"I guarantee there's going to be some criminal wrongdoing that we're going to find, because there's so much wrongdoing, somebody had to know what they were doing," Vance said in an interview on "Saturday in America."

Vance chairs the task force focused on fraud in states including California and Minnesota. On Wednesday, he and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced the administration would defer $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid funding to California over oversight concerns.

Vance said the federal government has shut down fraudulent hospice centers and issued 22 subpoenas tied to an alleged fraud ring in Minneapolis. The task force also announced a six-month freeze on new Medicare enrollments for hospice and home care providers.

He said state officials who knew about fraud and failed to act should face consequences.

"When I hear about a report that says to the governor, 'Here's all this fraud,' and he doesn't do anything about it, I ask myself, 'Was anybody engaged in criminal wrongdoing? Was anybody in his office engaged in criminal wrongdoing?'" Vance said.

"I am going to promise the American people we're going to look into that stuff, we're going to investigate it, and we're going to take it seriously," Vance added. "Because if there was criminal wrongdoing, then people ought to go to prison for it."

In posts on X, Newsom's office said the governor has acknowledged fraud concerns and previously expressed willingness to work with federal officials to combat them. In a separate response to Vance on X regarding an alleged fraud operation in the Los Angeles area, Newsom wrote: "The Trump Administration — home to the biggest fraudsters on Earth — is trying to blame California for issues with THEIR federal programs. Glad to see the Feds finally taking seriously the fraud in the programs they themselves manage...only 15 months after Trump took office."

On Wednesday, Vance said the task force is sending letters requiring states to show they are actively combating Medicaid fraud. "If they do not aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud, we are going to turn off the money that goes to these anti-fraud units," he warned.

Fox News Digital reached out to Gavin Newsom's office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.