Search Articles
MANHATTAN (CN) — More than twenty Democratic state attorneys general skipped Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud roundtable on Tuesday after claiming they were invited last-minute and days later than their Republican counterparts.
In a letter to Vance obtained by Courthouse News, the states said they have a “strong and ongoing commitment to combating fraud in all its forms,” but that their invites, which came on Friday, were simply too belated.
“While we would appreciate the opportunity to engage in serious discussions, the invitation was provided with less than one business day’s notice with no agenda,” the state attorneys general wrote. “This short notice does not match the spirit of collaboration that has long defined our joint efforts with federal partners. Accordingly, we respectfully decline to attend at this time.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of the state leaders who signed the Tuesday letter, decried Vance’s last-minute roundtable invites as a “political stunt from the White House aimed to divide our nation and pit our parties and states against one another.”
“The short notice we were given sends a clear message that we were either an afterthought or we weren’t really welcome,” Bonta said.
He added that an official from the California Department of Justice was “literally turned away at the door” after she “upended her schedule and gave up her holiday weekend” to make the trip to Washington, D.C.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also signed the letter, said at the joint press conference that her deputy attorney general was also denied access to the meeting.
“Stopping fraud and abuse is not a political issue,” she said, lamenting that Republican state attorneys general were the only ones to get initial invites.
Just 15 state attorneys general wound up attending the Tuesday meeting hosted by Vance, who has become the figurehead of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat fraud.
President Donald Trump tapped Vance to lead those efforts in March after signing an executive order establishing a federal task force specifically aimed at targeting fraud. But that order has been criticized for its targeting of immigrant communities — particularly amid the administration’s pardoning of several high-profile white-collar fraudsters.
Despite the gripes from the 24 Democratic attorneys general outlined in the letter, Vance touted bipartisanship during his opening remarks of the discussion.
“We’re going to work together, state and federal governments, to try to combat fraud,” the vice president said. “I’m particularly gratified here that this is not a partisan effort. I believe we have a couple representatives from the attorney general in Connecticut and Oregon."
The meeting focused on curbing Medicaid fraud, an effort the Democratic states say has been severely kneecapped by the Trump administration’s widespread cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services. Those cuts, the states claim, “risk exacerbating the very challenges” Vance is claiming to combat with his task force.
“Our states currently lack sufficient HHS inspector generals to match our efforts,” the states wrote in the letter. “A sustained federal-state partnership, backed by adequate and sustainable resources and coordination, has helped in effectively preventing, detecting and prosecuting fraud.”
James said that between 2019 to 2025, New York recovered more than $627 million by stopping Medicaid fraud in the state. That effort has gotten more difficult due to the federal funding slashes, she claimed.
“We cannot fight Medicaid fraud with one arm tied behind our backs, while at the same time the federal government is cutting Medicaid and weakening oversight and lowering standards,” James said at the press conference.
Bonta and James were joined at the press conference by the attorneys general of Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Wisconsin — all of whom also signed the letter.
The other signatories included the attorneys general of Arizona, Maine, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state.
Follow @Uebey
Follow @uebey.bsky.socialSubscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
