Promoting Trump's 'Health Care Fraud Takedown,' Fox Ignores His Fraudster Pardons
Assistant Attorney General for Fraud Enforcement Colin McDonald at the Justice Department on June 28, 2026
President Donald Trump has pardoned numerous people convicted of billions of dollars’ worth of health care fraud at the end of his first term and throughout his second term so far. Yet Fox News and Fox Business failed to mention these pardons in 1 hour and 24 minutes of coverage of the Trump administration’s announcements of arrests of health care fraudsters, with some network personalities even hyping up the president and his administration’s efforts to crack down on health care fraud.
On June 23, the Justice Department announced “the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which resulted in charges against 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals.” According to the DOJ’s press release, these people were arrested “for their alleged participation in health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims and significant patient harm, including death.” Prior to this announcement, the administration had blocked more than $1 billion worth of Medicaid funding to states governed by Democrats, claiming the funds were blocked due to concerns over fraud. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said that the funding halt was instead part of a “campaign of retribution” against Trump’s political opponents, “weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota.”
Fox treated the announcement of a health care fraud crackdown as a hit. “It may be the Minnesotan in me,” Fox Business host Brian Brenberg declared, “but I love the fraud crackdowns.” He added: “There's a lot of anti-fraud stuff going on. I think that's great. It doesn't feel like it's getting as much traction with the electorate as it ought to.” Fox & Friends likewise suggested that this issue should be an electoral winner.
Fox correspondent Bill Melugin stated that administration officials “are sending a clear message: If you put profit over patients, you should expect to be put in prison.” And Fox host Laura Ingraham touted the announcement with a graphic declaring: “Fraudsters beware.”
Yet according to a Media Matters review of this coverage of “the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown,” which came to a total of 1 hour and 24 minutes over four days, Fox News and Fox Business failed to mention that Trump had previously pardoned and commuted the sentences for multiple convicted health care fraudsters in both his first and second terms.
In May, a reporter with the Minnesota Reformer called out this dissonance within the Trump administration when he asked Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division Colin McDonald: “President Trump has granted clemency to numerous individuals who have stolen hundreds of millions in Medicaid funds. Can we expect any of these folks to be shown the same mercy?” McDonald reportedly replied, “I’ll take a different question.”
Reporting from Kaiser Family Foundation and The American Prospect on Trump’s pardons of health care fraudsters demonstrates the extent of his protection of these people:
- In 2021, KFF reported that Trump’s pardons at the end of his first term “included at least seven doctors or health care entrepreneurs who ran discredited health care enterprises, from nursing homes to pain clinics.” The article reported: “At the last minute, President Donald Trump granted pardons to several individuals convicted in huge Medicare swindles that prosecutors alleged often harmed or endangered elderly and infirm patients while fleecing taxpayers.” The article cited Louis Saccoccio, CEO of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, who said: “These aren’t just technical financial crimes. These were major, major crimes.” [KFF Health News, 1/22/21]
- KFF: “At least 13” of the health care fraudsters pardoned by Trump “were convicted in cases involving more than $1.6 billion in fraudulent claims filed with Medicare and Medicaid.” The article reported: “In his first and second terms, Trump has granted pardons or commutations to at least 68 people convicted of fraud crimes or interfering with fraud investigations, according to a KFF Health News review of court and clemency records, Department of Justice press releases, and news reports.” The article added: “In interviews with KFF Health News, two experts on health care fraud said that Trump’s claimed focus appears to be a pretext for slashing spending that was legally appropriated by Congress.” [KFF Health News, 4/4/25]
- The American Prospect: An analysis shows that “Trump has issued 15 pardons in his second term to business owners, pharmacists, doctors, and health care executives, who together defrauded more than $3 billion from the U.S. government and taxpayers.” The analysis was conducted by Protect Our Care, and its director of policy programs Vaishu Jawahar said of Trump: “His war on fraud is a joke. He’s the most corrupt president in modern history.” [The American Prospect, 4/21/26]
Trump’s pardons have a cost that goes beyond exposing his supposed crackdown on health care fraud as a thinly disguised farce. A June 16 statement from the office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom explained that Trump’s pardon spree “shortchanges victims and taxpayers nearly $2 billion,” because the pardons and commutations wipe out court-ordered repayment obligations.
Methodology
Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network for the term “fraud” within close proximity of any derivations of the root terms “health,” “medic,” or “hospice” from June 23, 2026, when the Trump administration announced the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, through June 26, 2026.
We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the crackdown. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the crackdown with one another.
We then reviewed the identified segments for whether any speaker mentioned any of President Donald Trump’s pardons or commutations of health care fraudsters in either his current or past terms in office.
All times were rounded to the nearest minute.
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