President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department on Nov. 7 to investigate Democratic lawmakers who, in the four days after winning control of Congress, named Trump officials they intend to investigate or impeach. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that “there have been no impeachable acts committed, or even thought of, by the victims of this illegal process,” adding, “This is extortion at the highest level.”
The officials Democrats have named include White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. None has been charged with a crime, and the new Congress does not convene until Jan. 3. Several of the Democrats leading the effort had previously clashed with the officials they are targeting.
Trump singled out Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). Last month she said she wanted college graduates considering administration jobs to think, “Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don’t want.” She added, “I want that deterrence message sent.” Slotkin organized the 2025 video urging service members to refuse illegal orders, and Hegseth called the lawmakers in it the “Seditious Six.” In February, a Washington grand jury declined to return indictments prosecutors sought over the video.
Slotkin said afterward that prosecutors had acted “at the direction of President Trump.” Blanche defended Trump’s order on CNN: “When the threats become so vile and so dangerous that you are telling people in college that they better be careful if they wanna work in the Trump administration because somebody will come after them, at some point you have to draw the line.” As of Nov. 7, the Justice Department had not announced a formal investigation.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, posted a two-word warning on election night: “LAWYER UP.” On Nov. 6, Trump named Miller chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Garcia responded by calling Miller “the architect of the unconstitutional ICE raids” and saying Miller “should lawyer up.”
Garcia has also promised “quick action” on what he called “pay-to-play schemes” involving Noem and her former aide Corey Lewandowski. Garcia, who came to the United States from Peru at age 5, was pursuing the same officials before the election. In January, he told constituents that Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries had selected him “to lead an impeachment inquiry into Noem.” His House website quotes him saying ICE “in its current form cannot exist.”
Garcia said the committee will also target what he called the “Trump crime family.” That includes a $2 billion investment Kushner’s private equity fund received from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding, which Russian businessman Umar Kremlev helped pay for, according to CBS and Forbes. Trump has said his son repaid Kremlev. Garcia has already sent letters to Kushner and to Kimberly Guilfoyle, the ambassador to Greece.
House Homeland Security Committee Democrats told Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “clear your calendar.” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told Mullin, border czar Tom Homan and Miller to make themselves available, and DHS’s top lawyer pushed back.
Ramirez’s mother crossed the border from Guatemala while pregnant with her, and her husband was a DACA recipient until he received a green card. Ramirez has called ICE a “terrorist organization.” In April, she attributed DACA deportations to a “white nationalist agenda” laid out by the Trump administration and Miller.
Two House Democrats have called for impeaching Blanche. “I personally believe that the offenses of Todd Blanche demand that he be impeached and convicted and removed from office,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said Nov. 5 on SiriusXM’s “The Dan Abrams Show.” Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) followed him on the program. “100 percent,” Ross said.
“But I think we should start with Hegseth.” Ross had clashed with Blanche before. When his Justice Department brought a case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, she called it one of the “many weaponized moves” taken “at the president’s behest.” No formal impeachment resolution against Blanche has been announced. Asked whether House Democrats would introduce an impeachment resolution against Blanche, Ross said, “I can’t imagine we won’t have one.”
Hegseth faces eight articles of impeachment filed Sept. 15 by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, which Democrats support. Hegseth called them “sham articles of impeachment,” and Trump said Hegseth had done a “fantastic job.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) was the lead House manager in Trump’s 2021 impeachment. He is now investigating donations Trump received from people he later pardoned, the White House pressure campaign on law firms, and the Justice Department’s anti-weaponization fund.
Some Democrats have warned their own party against an investigations-first agenda. “If I spent the next two years, my first two years in the Senate in investigations, I’d be deeply disappointed,” Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton said Nov. 8 on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added, “I don’t want to see us spend the next two years dividing our country further.” Former Sen.
Joe Manchin urged Democrats not to become “consumed with retaliation and retribution.” In April, the Democratic-aligned think tank Third Way found that voters preferred a focus on costs over investigations by 67 percent to 27 percent. Among Democratic voters, 49 percent favored investigations and 47 percent favored costs.
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