White House downplays Secret Service estimate of COVID fraud

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT
Associated Press

The White House is downplaying a statement by the U.S. Secret Service that nearly $100 billion at minimum has been stolen from COVID-19 relief programs. When asked Wednesday to comment, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “There is no new research, data or analysis of fraud here.” The Secret Service told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the estimate is based on Secret Service cases and data from other agencies. An agency spokesperson now says they were not amending a statement on their website, but did add a clarifying note to explain the figure is based on those reports.