President Donald Trump has told the Department of Justice to look into the Democratic Party, four days after voters gave Democrats control of Congress.
The order, posted on Truth Social on Saturday, is a public instruction from a president to the country’s top law enforcement agency. It matters because the department is expected to decide on its own who to investigate, based on evidence of a crime. So far the department has not confirmed that any investigation has begun, and the president has presented no evidence of a crime.
“The Democrats are going around threatening a lot of people, including the Attorney General of the United States, and others, with Impeachment and many other forms of punishment, even though they admit they have no reason to do so,” Trump wrote. “This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this.”
He said Democratic leaders had sent threatening letters to innocent people, including Republican donors, but he did not name the letters or share copies. “By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately!” he wrote. In a second post, he called the conduct totally illegal and said those responsible should go to jail.
The only Democrat the president named was Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. He accused her of planning to “go after all young people that believe in Republican Values.”
Slotkin’s own words are a matter of record. Speaking at the University of Chicago on October 13, she said she wanted “signature cases” against the people who enabled the president, not just the president himself. She said she wanted young graduates thinking about a job in the administration to worry that it “might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want,” and she added: “I want that deterrence message sent.”
She answered the president on Saturday. “This shouldn’t 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 said. She also noted that a grand jury refused to charge her earlier this year, after prosecutors sought to indict her and five other Democratic lawmakers over a video that urged service members to refuse illegal orders.
The most visible letters of the past week came from Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who is set to lead the Senate’s main investigative panel in January. His letters, sent on Thursday to companies that donated to the president’s White House ballroom project and to administration officials, asked for records and warned of subpoenas if they refused. The letters do not mention prison. Congress has the constitutional power to oversee the executive branch, and records requests and subpoenas are its normal tools.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that Congress holds oversight authority, though he argued the rhetoric had gone too far. He named no criminal law and did not confirm that any inquiry has begun. The department did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Other Democrats signaled they will not back down. Representative Robert Garcia of California, who is expected to lead the House Oversight Committee, answered the election results with two words: “Lawyer up.”
Transparency note: The text of the president’s main post was reproduced in full by Fox 2 Detroit and the Lansing State Journal and matches the Reuters account. The wording of his shorter second post rests on consistent summaries by CNBC and other outlets rather than one full reproduction. The president’s claims about threatening letters are unaccompanied by evidence, and he has not identified any letter.
