JD Vance warns blue state officials could face prison over billion-dollar fraud epidemic

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

Vance told Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany the administration's anti-fraud task force is looking into whether government officials enabled the alleged scams. He warned that anyone who covered up the abuse "ought to 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 exclusive interview on "Saturday in America."

Vance was named chair of an anti-fraud task force focused on rooting out alleged fraud in states including California and Minnesota. On Wednesday, the vice president, alongside Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, announced the administration would defer $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid funding to California due to oversight concerns.

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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.

Now, he says, 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.

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"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."

A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom's office fired back at Vance's comments, telling Fox News Digital that California has long been working to root out fraud. 

"Tackling fraud is nothing new to California - which is why Governor Newsom implemented a moratorium on all new hospice provider licenses back in 2022, to root out fraud while preventing bad actors from entering the system. We're glad to see the Trump administration follow California's lead on this after weeks of us calling for them to do the same," a spokesperson for the governor said. 

"California welcomes federal partnership in fraud prevention. If the Trump administration wants to focus on internal criminal wrongdoing, they don't need to look very far - pardoning criminal cronies and letting bad actors skate has been a flagship of the president's administration, so long as these individuals donate or vote for him," the spokesperson added. 

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In posts on X, Newsom's office also 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," Vance warned.