Unemployment fraud audit creates fresh questions for Newsom

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — In the face of a new scathing audit about California's failure to prevent billions in unemployment insurance fraud, Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration is putting blame on the federal government and declining to share details about how often he was briefed on the problems.

State Auditor Elaine Howle found Thursday the state agency that oversees unemployment benefits paid out at least $10.4 billion in fraudulent claims due to “significant missteps and inaction." At one point, just two people were assigned to look into reports of 1,000 fraudulent claims per day. The audit found the agency paid at least $810 million to prison inmates, more than double the amount previously thought.

It's just the latest examination of the agency's struggles as it rushed to pay claims to millions of Californians who lost their jobs amid coronavirus-related business closures. And it's another political headache for Newsom, the first-term Democratic governor already under pressure over the state's confusing shutdown orders and chaotic vaccine rollout. He didn't comment on the audit's findings Thursday.

Several Democratic lawmakers and a former gubernatorial chief of staff say its unfair to blame Newsom for the Employment Development Department's problems, and that the focus should be on fixing the department. But Republicans and at least one outside expert say fraud could have been halted sooner.

Newsom spokeswoman Erin Mellon said the new federal unemployment program created last year was the source of most of the fraud, with the Trump administration giving states little assistance to combat it. She pointed to actions Newsom has taken like creating a strike force in August to evaluate the agency and, more recently, a fraud task force. But she declined to directly answer questions about whether the governor was...