WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance on Saturday launched a blistering attack on Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, dismissing her latest defense of the state’s decertified Medicaid fraud unit as “either profoundly stupid or profoundly dishonest” and noting that the $3 million in annual federal funding her office lost in June has not been restored.
“Anne Lopez wants to wave around $14 million in civil settlements like it’s a trophy,” Mr. Vance told reporters outside the West Wing. “A civil settlement is what happens when you catch a thief and let him pay back part of what he stole. A prosecution is what happens when you believe stealing from taxpayers is a crime. Hawaii couldn’t manage a single indictment in three years. That’s not enforcement — that’s surrender.”
Ms. Lopez, in a television interview earlier in the week, called the federal government’s decision to strip the unit of its certification “an abuse of power” and accused the administration of using Hawaii as a “political prop.” She pointed to the $14 million in civil recoveries since 2021 and noted that her office had recently filed criminal healthcare-fraud charges against two individuals.
But reporting has since undercut that figure. A breakdown of settlements provided by the attorney general’s office suggests the total was actually closer to $13 million — and roughly $13 million of that came from a single case that began over a decade ago. The remaining cases amount to approximately $182,000 in recoveries.
Mr. Vance seized on that discrepancy.
“She’s out there bragging about $14 million in settlements, and it turns out $13 million of it is from one ancient case and everything else adds up to less than two hundred grand,” he said. “That’s her defense? That’s the record she’s proud of? It’s a joke. And the joke is on the people of Hawaii.”
“She says we’re using Hawaii as a prop,” he added. “Hawaii is using its own citizens as props. The people on Medicaid who need this program to work are the ones being betrayed.”
So did President Trump, who lambasted her in a Truth Social Post the evening before.
The confrontation has moved well beyond a press-conference spat. On June 4, the Health and Human Services inspector general, March Bell, notified Ms. Lopez and the fraud unit’s director, Landon Murata, that the unit’s federal certification was denied, halting roughly $3 million a year in federal reimbursement effective that day. The state said it would seek reconsideration, and Mr. Murata sent a letter asking the inspector general to reverse the decision. No public report indicates the certification has been restored; the denial remains the operative order.
The inspector general also told the state that if the unit fixes its problems and achieves recertification by Sept. 30 — the end of the federal fiscal year, now a little over a month away — funding could resume. That deadline has heightened pressure on an office still reeling from the administration’s public campaign.
Medicaid benefits themselves were not cut. Governor Josh Green’s office and the state’s Department of Human Services confirmed that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services assured them the Med-QUEST program remains in good standing — eligibility, services, and the broader federal Medicaid match are still flowing. The cut applies only to the fraud unit’s operating grant. Broader Medicaid funding was raised as a possible next step, not an executed penalty.
Mr. Green, a Democrat, stood up a separate Medicaid Fraud Strike Force inside the Department of Human Services in June, with a report due Dec. 31. The move amounts to a political and operational workaround while the attorney general’s unit remains decertified — an implicit acknowledgment that the state cannot rely on Ms. Lopez’s office alone.
Ms. Lopez skipped a White House fraud roundtable in June, calling the short-notice invitation a “political stunt.” She has been joined in her pushback by Democratic attorneys general from California, New York, New Jersey, and Wisconsin.
Mr. Vance dismissed that coalition as partisan self-preservation.
“They’re not defending Lopez because she’s right,” he said. “They’re defending her because if Hawaii gets held accountable, they’re next. And they should be next.”
He pointed to the recent criminal charges as evidence of political motivation rather than genuine commitment.
“For three years, nothing,” he said. “The moment the money gets cut off, suddenly charges appear. That tells you what was motivating her office — and it wasn’t justice. It was embarrassment.”
Ms. Lopez’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday evening.
When pressed on whether his rhetoric was too personal, Mr. Vance was blunt.
“I don’t know Anne Lopez. I don’t care about Anne Lopez,” he said. “I care about the fact that taxpayer money is being stolen and the person whose job it is to stop it is making excuses. If that offends her, she should try doing her job.”
The scoreboard is stark. The administration landed its punch and the money is gone. Hawaii is in a repair window through Sept. 30 with no public recertification in sight, and the attorney general who was supposed to be fighting fraud is now fighting to get her funding back — while the fraud she was tasked with prosecuting continues unabated.
