President Donald Trump says he has ordered the Department of Justice to immediately investigate what he calls a criminal act by Democratic leaders, accusing them of threatening Republican donors with imprisonment and administration officials with impeachment. Trump made the claims in posts on Truth Social, according to reports, days after Democrats flipped control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections.
“I am ordering the Department of Justice to look into this criminal act, immediately!” Trump wrote, according to POLITICO. The outlet reported that Trump accused Democrats of threatening Republican donors with imprisonment and Attorney General Todd Blanche and other administration officials with impeachment. As News Radio 1200 WOAI noted, Trump described the alleged conduct as weaponization and lawfare at another level, and said Democrats should be held accountable for alleged extortion.
But key details remain missing from Trump's accusations. According to ABC News, the president did not specify what letters he was referring to or explain how the conduct he described would constitute a criminal act. The network also reported that Trump claimed, without providing evidence, that Democrats are threatening Republican donors simply for their party affiliation.
A Power Shift in Washington
The accusations land just days after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections. CBS News reported that 43 House districts had shifted to Democrats while only two had shifted to Republicans, putting House Democrats on pace to win 256 seats compared with the 214 they held in the current Congress.
That shift sets up fresh oversight fights in January, including for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who is expected to face the incoming Democratic Congress while seeking additional funding for the war. ABC News reported that Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is expected to reintroduce a privileged resolution to impeach Hegseth, which could come as early as Monday.
A Pattern of Targeting Political Opponents
Trump's call for a DOJ investigation follows a string of prior actions against perceived political adversaries. ABC News has reported that the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C., sought but failed to secure an indictment against six Democratic members of Congress, and that former FBI Director James Comey was indicted just days after Trump publicly demanded his Justice Department act against him and other political foes in September 2025.
Not every push for prosecution has succeeded. Protect Democracy's retaliatory action tracker notes that a grand jury declined to return an indictment against former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on October 27. The organization says its tracker documents selected federal retaliatory investigations, arrests and prosecutions pursued by the Trump administration since January 2025, and is not exhaustive — it listed 40 entries as of its November 3 update, according to Protect Democracy.
What Justice Department Guidelines Say
The Justice Department's own prosecution guidance states that federal prosecutors and agents may never decide whether or when to investigate, prosecute, or take investigative steps for the purpose of affecting an election or giving an advantage or disadvantage to a candidate or political party, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Justice Manual.
It also remains unclear whether the Justice Department has taken any action since Trump's posts, and no response from the Democratic lawmakers he accused, or direct statement from the department itself, has been reported. For now, the dispute plays out largely through dueling public statements as the new Congress prepares to take shape.
