President Trump said Saturday he is ordering the Justice Department to investigate Democrats for threatening to investigate his administration. “By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately!” he wrote on Truth Social, Newsweek reported.
The “criminal act,” as Trump described it, is Democrats talking about impeachment and oversight now that they’ve won control of the House and Senate. “The Democrats are going around threatening a lot of people, including the Attorney General of the United States,” he wrote, “with Impeachment and many other forms of punishment.” He called it “extortion at the highest level” and “Weaponization and Lawfare at another level,” and added: “The imprisonment should be against these EXTORTIONISTS, and Republicans should get smart, fast!”
He didn’t cite a law that was broken or offer evidence, Reuters reported. The Justice Department didn’t respond to requests for comment, and it wasn’t clear Saturday whether any investigation had actually been opened.
Who did Trump accuse, and what did they say?
The only Democrat he named was Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. Trump claimed she said she would “go after all young people that believe in Republican Values.” Here’s what she actually said at a University of Chicago event last month, according to Reuters: she wants young people considering a job in the Trump administration to think, “Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want.” She added, “I want that deterrence message sent.”
That is a warning that people who break the law in government will face consequences later, which is a fair thing to argue about. It isn’t a threat to punish people for being Republicans. Slotkin answered Saturday: “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.”
Has the Justice Department gone after Slotkin before?
Yes, and it didn’t work. The department investigated Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, and other Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds after they posted a video telling service members they can refuse illegal orders. A grand jury refused to indict them earlier this year. “Your threats of legal action and worse didn’t work when you tried to criminally indict me in front of a grand jury last February,” Slotkin wrote to Trump.
What are Democrats planning to investigate?
Once they take over in January, Democrats will have subpoena power and can hold hearings. They’ve said they’ll look at the Trump family’s business deals, immigration enforcement and the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files. Rep. Jamie Raskin, in line to chair House Judiciary, has said Attorney General Todd Blanche could face impeachment hearings. Rep. Robert Garcia, expected to chair Oversight, posted “LAWYER UP.” That’s the normal work of a Congress run by the other party, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is already a target. It comes days after Democrats won both chambers.
The BeezLoop Take
Congress investigating the executive branch is the system working. Impeachment is in the Constitution. Calling it extortion and ordering prosecutors to investigate it is an attempt to turn oversight itself into a crime, and that should worry anyone, whichever party holds the gavel.
Democrats should be careful too. Lines like “lawyer up” make the hearings sound like a payback tour before a single subpoena goes out. The strongest oversight is the kind that sticks to documents and facts, which is also the kind that’s hardest for Trump to call political.
The open question: will anyone at the Justice Department actually open a case on this, and if they do, will a grand jury go along with it any more than the last one did?
Sources: Reuters via Yahoo · Newsweek · The Mirror via AOL · News24 (video)
