The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was asked to investigate Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) over remarks she made about pursuing people connected to the Trump administration and deterring young professionals from joining it.
The request, obtained by the Washington Examiner, came in a Wednesday letter from Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project, a conservative legal advocacy group. Davis, a close ally of President Donald Trump who was once floated as an attorney general nominee, addressed the letter to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and asked the division to review Slotkin’s statements and open an investigation. The letter also urges scrutiny of her staff, donors, and colleagues.
“[A] sitting United States Senator should understand the gravity of advocating legal and professional consequences for political opponents,” Davis wrote, urging the Civil Rights Division to review Slotkin’s statements and “open an investigation if warranted.”
Slotkin made the remarks during an Oct. 13 University of Chicago event with Vox editorial director Astead Herndon. She said she wanted to pursue “signature cases” involving Trump and people around him, and described a “deterrence” message for young people considering administration jobs.
“I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him. I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity,'” Slotkin said. “I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message.”
Davis argued that Slotkin described targeting junior personnel and young professionals to discourage them from serving, rather than solely to pursue justice for alleged misconduct. He says the distinction raises concerns about using the legal system to penalize people for their political associations.
The letter also cited Slotkin’s Oct. 19 post on X. She wrote that people who use the justice system to bring frivolous lawsuits aimed at intimidating and jailing political opponents “should be held accountable for that via your bar status.” Davis characterized the post as an endorsement of professional consequences for lawyers based on their political activity.
The two also clashed over Davis’s references to the Second Amendment. In response to Slotkin’s remarks, Davis wrote that she “will learn why we have the Second Amendment” if she used “illegal arrests and political persecutions” against young people with opposing political views. He also posted, “Learn about the Second Amendment, sweetheart.”
Slotkin, who was already the subject of a failed grand jury inquiry earlier this year related to her public address to military personnel not to follow “illegal orders” by the Trump administration, accused Davis of “mobilizing death threats” against her and her staff, and said his Second Amendment comments amounted to a threat that she could be shot.
In a statement to CNN, Davis rejected that characterization, saying the amendment “deters government tyrants from actually taking illegal action” against constitutional rights. He also called Slotkin “unhinged” in a post responding to coverage of her accusation.
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