Op-Ed: Trump’s Federal Watchdogs are Rooting-out Fraud

By Anthony D'Esposito

An ex-federal Inspector General ("IG") has been attacking President Donald Trump’s efforts to root-out government fraud — but his complaints sound more like a bitter kiss-off from a spurned ex-bureaucrat.

“The watchdogs have crossed a dangerous line,” Mark Greenblatt intoned in the Daily Beast. “They’ve become lapdogs” — “MAGA lapdogs,” as his headline put it.

Greenblatt and his gang are angry that my IG colleagues and I are cracking-down on the fraud that has been looting our national treasury.

His argument rests on a flawed premise: He claims that attacking fraud somehow prevents an inspector general from conducting independent oversight. That is nonsense.

The Inspector General Act, which established the job I hold at the US Department of Labor, does not require blindness to an administration's policy priorities.

It requires independence in conducting audits, investigations and oversight.

There’s a significant difference between supporting efforts to protect taxpayer dollars and compromising investigative integrity.

Apparently, that distinction escapes Greenblatt. In fact, rooting out waste, fraud and abuse is precisely what IG's are supposed to do.

My office has aggressively pursued pandemic-era unemployment fraud, identifying hundreds of millions of dollars in recoverable taxpayer funds and freezing suspicious accounts.

We’ve launched investigations that have resulted in arrests, prosecutions and recovery efforts nationwide. None of that has compromised a single investigation.

In fact, our investigative work has expanded — because we refuse to sit on the sidelines issuing academic critiques while criminals steal real money from hard-working Americans.

Greenblatt seems particularly disturbed that I am working side by side with Keith Sonderling, the Labor Department’s acting secretary, and actively participating in Vice President Vance’s White House Fraud Task Force.

He confuses collaboration with political capture.

Yet Americans expect government agencies and officials to coordinate and collaborate when confronting major problems like the historic levels of fraud that we have uncovered.

Isolating IGs from operational discussions simply to preserve the appearance of independence is exactly the type of outdated thinking that allowed hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to disappear in the first place.

My responsibility is not to protect Washington traditions — but to protect taxpayers.

That means sitting at the table when solutions are being developed. It means working with agency leaders when reforms are needed. It means collaborating with the vice president’s task force when coordinated enforcement can help recover stolen funds.

And it means retaining complete independence when audits, investigations or prosecutions require scrutiny of anyone — regardless of title, position or political affiliation.

Before entering public service, I spent nearly two decades as a highly decorated NYPD Detective. My job was simple: follow the facts, find the suspects, embrace technology and build the case. 

Criminals don’t wear political labels, and investigators don’t ask about party affiliation before pursuing the truth. 

That mindset shaped my career in law enforcement and continues to guide every decision I make as an Inspector General.

The reality is simple: independence is measured by actions. My office follows evidence wherever it leads. We conduct criminal investigations, execute audits, issue public reports and make findings based on facts.

We don’t check polling data before issuing subpoenas, or seek permission before exposing failures.

In fact, one of my office’s first significant actions under my leadership was opening an investigation into now-former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer - a Trump appointee and ally - because the facts clearly warranted investigation, and independence requires following the evidence.

What frustrates some members of the old watchdog establishment is not that this administration’s IGs are less independent; it’s that we’re more effective. For too long, government oversight meant nothing but reports that gathered dust and recommendations that were ignored.

But Americans want results. They want stolen money recovered and fraudsters prosecuted. They want accountability.

That’s exactly what we are delivering.

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Anthony D'Esposito currently serves as the Inspector General of the US Department of Labor. He was a US Congressman from Long Island (NY-4) and Councilman in the Town of Hempstead.