President Donald Trump responded to losing both chambers of Congress by demanding on Truth Social that the Democrats who beat him be investigated and jailed.
An attorney for Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., warned Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, not to act on the president’s call for a criminal investigation into her political speech, in a letter made public two days after Trump’s Saturday, Nov. 7 posts ordering the Justice Department to go after lawmakers he branded “EXTORTIONISTS.”
The lawyer is Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who told Blanche that the department should have no trouble making clear that the United States is not a place where criticizing the powerful can put a person in legal jeopardy or behind bars. One step would settle the matter, Bharara wrote: “That requires a clear and public statement confirming that the Department will not pursue this investigation against Senator Slotkin.”
“SLEAZEBAGS” and an Order to Investigate
Trump, 80, wrote his posts as Democrats, fresh off winning the House and the Senate in a resounding rebuke of the president, began lining up investigations of his administration. “The imprisonment should be against these EXTORTIONISTS, and Republicans should get smart, fast!” he wrote. He went further in a second post: “These SLEAZEBAGS should go to jail for what they are doing.”
Trump wrote that Democratic political leaders had sent threatening letters to many innocent people, and that impeachment talk aimed at Blanche and others amounted to extortion at the highest level. “By copy of this statement, I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately!” he wrote.
He also claimed Democrats were menacing Republican donors — “some of the most respected people anywhere in the World” — with prison and other punishment simply for backing his party. He urged followers to report supposed illegal acts to the Justice Department or “directly to me, your President,” and he pressed the Senate, which stays in Republican hands until January 2027, to act.
The Chicago Remarks Behind the Demand
Trump singled out Slotkin, 50, falsely asserting that she intends to “go after all young people that believe in Republican Values.” What the Michigan senator actually did, a few weeks before the midterms, was tell an audience at the University of Chicago that the prospect of future investigations should deter young people from signing on with the administration. Bharara called that speech lawful.
Slotkin is a former CIA and Defense Department official who won her seat in 2024 and was not on the ballot this year. The administration already tried and failed to indict her and a group of lawmakers earlier in 2026 over a social media video. Writing on Facebook, Slotkin told the president his threats had not worked when he tried to put her in front of a grand jury, and said his fixation on the subject of corruption and illegal orders revealed more about him than about her.
The Subpoenas Waiting in January
When the 120th Congress convenes in January 2027, the new Democratic majorities gain the power to subpoena witnesses, compel testimony, demand documents and fund investigations. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who is set to chair the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had a two-word message for the administration after Election Day: “LAWYER UP.”
Garcia has already sketched out his targets, among them the Trump family’s business dealings, corporate corruption, the president’s handling of the Epstein files and the inner workings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in line to chair the Senate Finance Committee, said administration officials would be forced to answer to his panel for what he described as their role in hurting Americans and enabling Trump’s corruption.
The impeachment threats Trump labeled extortion are real and multiplying. Reps. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and Deborah Ross, D-N.C., floated impeaching Blanche, with Johnson pointing to efforts to “undermine the rule of law.” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., whom Trump helped unseat in a primary, announced plans to force a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., have each called for a probe of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the operation once run by Elon Musk, who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the midterms on behalf of Republicans.
Democrats have not ruled out a third Trump impeachment, though their focus appears to be on Cabinet members, with Blanche and Hegseth at the front of the line.
Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, runs a Justice Department that has already investigated many of the president’s perceived political enemies, and a public White House demand for a specific investigation cuts against the department’s long effort to keep politics out of its casework. Asked about Slotkin on Monday, a department spokesperson would not rule out an investigation, pointing to her statement that the prospect of future investigations should discourage young people from joining the administration, and saying public service should not be answered with threats of retribution. The department, the spokesperson added, is committed to ending the weaponization of government and follows the facts and the law.