President Donald Trump has caused chaos in the Department of Justice with demands that his investigators target ice cream trucks over Wall Street fraudsters, according to a new report.
The White House's "war on fraud" points major investigative guns on small businesses accused of pocketing relatively tiny amounts compared to the white collar criminals' takes — a move the New York Times reported has baffled and infuriated experts.
"The D.O.J. drops multimillion-dollar fraud cases, then pursues people alleged to have defrauded SNAP of a few thousand dollars," said Stacey Young, founder of the group Justice Connection.
"Enforcement priorities send a message, and their message on fraud is chaotic.”
Young criticized Trump directly for being “all over the map when it comes to fraud," as he "pardons scores of wealthy executives."
Those targeted included an ice cream, fruits and vegetables truck in California that redeemed a suspicious $600,000 in food stamps, and a grocery store cashier accused of swapping less than $10,000 worth SNAP cards for about $5,000 cash, according to the report.
The Times noted both were targeted by undercover ICE agents.
Meanwhile, Trump's second term has seen white-collar case numbers plummet to 4,747 — down from 8,78 under former President Barack Obama and 6,626 in Trump's first term, according to the report.
Justice Department insiders are reportedly less than pleased with this shift in priorities.
"Current and former federal prosecutors...criticize the change as effectively lowering the standards of a Justice Department that for decades prided itself on tackling big, financially complex investigations in executive suites," the report stated.
Justice Department spokesperson Matthew Tragesser promoted the initiative with the argument that no crime should go unpunished.
“Pursuing only the largest-dollar cases while ignoring smaller ones would send precisely the wrong message — that low-level fraudsters are immune from federal prosecution,” he said. “They are not.”
But Jacqueline Kelly, a former federal prosecutor, told the Times that targeting smaller fraud cases came with a very serious downside.
"That’s resources being pulled from other areas," said Kelly. "We’re not seeing an increase in fraud prosecutions involving public companies, investment frauds and the more traditional Wall Street prosecutions typically pursued by the Justice Department.”
