The Department of Justice has established a new Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which will leverage the False Claims Act to investigate and pursue claims against recipients of federal funds who “knowingly violate civil rights laws.”

By Danielle Conley, Terra Reynolds, Anne W. Robinson, Jude Volek, and Savannah Burgoyne

In a memorandum dated May 19, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the establishment of a new Civil Rights Fraud Initiative (the Initiative) at the Department of Justice (DOJ). The Initiative will use the False Claims Act (FCA) as its “primary weapon” to investigate and pursue claims against recipients of federal funds who “knowingly violate civil rights laws,” such as Title VI, which prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs and activities based on race, color, or national origin, and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in such programs and activities based on sex.

The Initiative will be co-led and “aggressively pursue[d]” by the DOJ Civil Division’s Fraud Section and DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. The memorandum advises both divisions to coordinate nationally with DOJ’s Criminal Division, as well as other federal agencies, state attorneys general, and local law enforcement to enforce the initiative. It also instructs each of the 93 US Attorney’s Offices nationwide to identify an Assistant US Attorney to support the effort.

Notably, the memorandum explicitly encourages whistleblowers to file lawsuits under the FCA’s qui tam provision, which authorizes private parties to litigate FCA claims and to receive a portion of any monetary recovery. The memorandum also encourages whistleblowers to report to the “appropriate federal authorities” so that DOJ may consider the information and “take any appropriate action.”

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