James Comer just told Gavin Newsom to lawyer up.
A whistleblower went to Congress this week with an allegation that could end Newsom's 2028 ambitions before they begin.
Here is what that whistleblower told Congress about the $3 and a half billion fraud Newsom's own auditors flagged four years ago.
The Whistleblower Who Could Upend Newsom's 2028 Ambitions
Comer went on Fox News this week and said it plainly: "It is rampant in California, and Gavin Newsom knew it and hasn't done a thing about it."
He wasn't speculating.
A whistleblower has come forward alleging that Newsom and his staff were personally aware of what investigators now believe is $3.5 billion in hospice fraud operating out of Los Angeles County – and sat on it.
Comer told reporters he wants Newsom to testify before the committee and is working to bring that whistleblower before Congress.
The fraud itself is almost impossible to describe without seeing it.
State auditors found 112 different hospice agencies licensed at a single commercial building in Van Nuys – a building with no signage, no staff, and nobody inside when investigators knocked.
Reporters found hospices operating out of empty lots, strip malls, nail salons, and auto parts stores.
One whistleblower told Fox News that California's licensing system has essentially no guardrails.
"It's all just paperwork. I could fill [an application] out in Kazakhstan if I want, and get a hospice license."
Los Angeles County now accounts for 18% of all hospice billing in the entire United States – while housing nowhere near 18% of the American population.
Your Medicare Dollars, Straight Into the Fraud Machine
Here is how the scam works on the ground.
Recruiters target seniors at shopping centers and senior centers, promising walkers, nutritional drinks, and cash payments – in exchange for a Medicare number.
That number gets sold to a hospice operator for $1,000 to $3,000, with the recruiter collecting a monthly cut for as long as the senior stays enrolled.
The senior never agreed to any of it.
Many don't find out they've been enrolled in a ghost hospice until they try to see a real doctor – and discover their Medicare number is already spoken for.
"A Medicare MIB number is more lucrative than a credit card," said Sheila Clark, president of the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association. "They're human traffickers. They're trafficking beneficiaries in and out of hospices, home health."
The LA County hospice fraud isn't something Newsom stumbled into recently.
A 2022 California State Auditor report documented a 1,500% increase in registered hospice providers in Los Angeles County since 2010 and flagged patients labeled as terminally ill who were later discharged alive, along with overbilling of at least $105 million in a single year.
Newsom's administration received that report.
He had four years to act on it.
The fraud kept growing.
Comer Sees Minnesota All Over Again
The pattern is familiar to anyone who watched the House Oversight Committee dismantle Tim Walz.
Comer's team just finished exposing the $350 million daycare and food program fraud in Minnesota – where Walz presided over one of the largest state-level government fraud operations in American history.
"This is a very similar scenario to what we had in Minnesota," Comer said on Fox News. "We believe this is the tip of the iceberg."
The committee is demanding all documents and communications between Newsom's office and California health agencies covering the hospice programs from January 1, 2019 to the present, with a deadline of April 6.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has already issued Newsom a separate three-week deadline to produce a comprehensive fraud action plan.
Oz says 42 fraudulent hospice providers are packed into a single four-block radius in Van Nuys alone.
"Governor Newsom, the clock is ticking," Oz posted on social media.
Newsom's office fired back with the kind of spin you'd expect from a man thinking about 2028 – pointing to 280 revoked hospice licenses over two years and a multi-agency task force as proof that California "took decisive action years ago."
What that statement didn't address was the whistleblower.
It didn't explain 112 agencies in one building.
And it didn't explain how, with all that decisive action, the fraud kept running on Newsom's watch while your tax dollars funded every ghost patient on the list.
The 2022 state audit didn't just raise red flags. It concluded that California's oversight had "created opportunities for large-scale fraud and abuse." Newsom read that warning, pointed to a task force, and let the fraud run for four more years.
Congress is now asking him to explain that under oath.
- William La Jeunesse, "Los Angeles Hospice Fraud Reaches Billions as Medicare Providers Scam Federal System," Fox News, January 30, 2026.
- House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, "Oversight Committee Launches Investigation Into Rampant Taxpayer Fraud in California Hospice Programs," oversight.house.gov, March 23, 2026.
- Letter to Governor Gavin Newsom from House Oversight Committee Republicans, March 23, 2026.
- Tyler Olson, "Comer Tells Newsom to 'Lawyer Up' as House Oversight Launches California Fraud Probe," Fox News, March 25, 2026.
- NewsNation Staff, "$3.5B Lost in Los Angeles Hospice Fraud, James Comer Says," NewsNation, March 25, 2026.
- California State Auditor, "California Hospice Licensure and Oversight: The State's Weak Oversight of Hospice Agencies Has Created Opportunities for Large-Scale Fraud and Abuse," March 29, 2022.
