Fitch: Mississippi is forming task force to help Trump’s ‘war on fraud’

Attorney General Lynn Fitch said she and other Mississippi officials are joining the Trump administration to fight fraud and “protect American taxpayers from … grift”

“With the support of the U.S. Department of Justice, my office is standing up Joint Task Force Vigilance with our two U.S. attorneys and the FBI to surge resources and personnel to make Mississippi safer, protect Mississippi taxpayers and restore law and order,” Fitch said in a press release. “This first-of-its-kind task force will bring the full authority of our office to bear on con artists, grifters, fraudsters and scammers.”

Fitch said her office has been awarded over $2.5 million in federal money to form the task force. Anti-fraud efforts pushed by the White House will also include the Mississippi secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, U.S. attorneys and FBI offices. This is part of a new Southeast Regional Fraud Enforcement Partnership that includes officials from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.

This is part of a “war on fraud” that President Donald Trump announced earlier this year, which included the creation of a new anti-fraud division in the DOJ and a “fraud czar” position that the administration at one point said would be run out of the White House.

Critics of the administration’s push said it appears to be aimed at targeting political foes of the White House, including blue state officials, ahead of this year’s midterm elections.