Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday that the Justice Department had no ongoing criminal investigations into statements by senators or members of Congress, hours after President Donald Trump renewed his demand that six Democratic lawmakers face prosecution. Speaking at a Justice Department news conference, Blanche said political criticism could become criminal if it crossed into threats, but that threshold had not been reached.
Trump’s latest call concerned a social media video the six lawmakers released last year advising members of the military and intelligence communities not to follow unlawful orders. His administration sought to indict them earlier this year, but a federal grand jury in Washington unanimously rejected the proposed charges. In a Thursday morning social media post, Trump again asked whether the lawmakers would be prosecuted and accused them of violating the country and its Constitution.
The dispute followed a White House warning earlier in the week that congressional Democrats could be committing a crime by pursuing investigations into the administration. Democrats won control of both the House and Senate in the previous week’s midterm elections. Blanche said he believed Americans should be concerned about some politicians’ rhetoric since those victories, while acknowledging that free speech was permitted.
A separate confrontation involved Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s investigation into donors supporting Trump’s White House ballroom project. Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, sent Blumenthal a letter Wednesday demanding that he preserve records and suggesting that the congressional inquiry had prompted a civil rights investigation. Reitz alleged that the probe amounted to harassment of citizens.
Reitz, a former chief of staff to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, was recently appointed to the prosecutor’s position after losing his campaign for attorney general. Blumenthal said in response to the letter that he would continue investigating the ballroom project and would not be intimidated.
Blanche praised Reitz on Thursday but did not explain why a Texas prosecutor would investigate a Connecticut senator working in Washington. He also did not explicitly say whether he had approved Reitz’s public announcement of the inquiry on social media. Blanche said any office could investigate the matter and that Justice Department leaders were working with all U.S. attorneys on ongoing investigations.
Trump also ordered the department last week to investigate Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin over remarks she made at a school. He characterized her comments as criminal after she delivered what she called a deterrence message to people considering joining his administration. An attorney for Slotkin wrote to Blanche this week urging the department to stop threatening constitutional freedoms and rule out another frivolous investigation at public expense.
Slotkin, who appeared in the video at the center of the unsuccessful indictment effort, responded Thursday on X to Trump’s renewed prosecution demand. She accused him of trying to prosecute critics and distract from his party’s election losses, and challenged Trump and Blanche to proceed.
