President Donald Trump has ordered the US Justice Department to investigate Democrats he accuses of threatening administration officials with impeachment and other forms of punishment, calling their conduct a “criminal act” in a social media post on Saturday.
Trump offered no evidence for the accusation. In a post on Truth Social, he said Democrats were “threatening a lot of people” with impeachment, including Attorney General Todd Blanche, and claimed they had admitted they had no reason to do so. “By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately!” he wrote.
The order came four days after Democrats routed Trump’s Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections, winning control of both chambers of Congress. The new majorities take office in January, and Democratic leaders have promised to reassert congressional oversight of the executive branch, including hearings and investigations into administration actions.
Trump accused Democrats of sending “threatening letters to many people, all innocent.” Members of Congress have in recent weeks released letters seeking documents on matters including donations from technology companies towards the large ballroom Trump is building at the White House.
The president singled out one Democrat by name: Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. At the University of Chicago last month, Slotkin said Congress should investigate people who had enabled Trump’s policies, adding that she wanted young people considering government work to think twice about joining the administration. “I want that deterrence message sent,” she said.
Her remarks drew criticism from some Republicans. Senator Mike Lee of Utah wrote on social media that Slotkin was threatening young people who wanted to go into politics; Slotkin replied that he had lied about her comments and told him to “spare us the manufactured outrage.”
Two House Democrats, Hank Johnson of Georgia and Deborah Ross of North Carolina, have publicly said since election day that they would support impeaching Blanche. Trump did not name either of them in his post.
Slotkin responded on Saturday that the issue should not be controversial. “If you break the law or use taxpayer dollars to enrich yourself, you should be held accountable. If you didn’t break the law, then it’s all good,” she wrote.
It is not the first time the Justice Department has investigated Slotkin. The former CIA analyst was among a group of Democratic lawmakers with national security backgrounds whom the department investigated after they posted a video urging service members and intelligence officials to disobey illegal orders from the administration. A grand jury rejected the attempt to indict them.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and had not announced any formal investigation as of Saturday afternoon. It remains unclear what criminal statutes, if any, prosecutors would examine: impeachment is a power the Constitution gives to the House, and threatening to use it is not itself a crime.
Sources: Reuters — “Trump orders DOJ to look into Democrats for ‘threatening’ people” (https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-orders-doj-look-into-democrats-threatening-people-2026-11-07/); CNBC, via reporting on the Truth Social post and the Justice Department’s response.
