DOJ urged to investigate Slotkin over threats to young professionals seeking work in Trump administration

EXCLUSIVE – 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.Trump went further Tuesday, saying Slotkin “should be tried” over her remarks about deterring young people from joining his administration. He also said she had called for prosecutions “to scare people from going into politics.”Slotkin released a video and a statement responding to the president following his remarks, daring the administration to come after her. Just a few hours ago, President Trump said in the Oval Office that I should be tried in court because I dared to talk about the corruption coming out of the White House.If I've learned one thing from this past year, it's that you have to push back. I'm not going to be… pic.twitter.com/24mDNf8G0a— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) October 20, 2026 “If I’ve learned one thing from this past year, it’s that you have to push back. … But I’m not going to be intimidated out of standing up for the rule of law and the country that has given me everything,” she said.Davis placed his DOJ request within a broader argument about what he calls “lawfare and barfare.” He cited a September report from the self-described “nonpartisan” Democracy Restored nonprofit organization, alleging a coordinated campaign to use bar complaints against conservative attorneys. The report reviewed 181 complaints and related filings.The group’s senior counsel, Karin Sweigart, presented its findings at a BARFARE summit that featured Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Eric Schmitt (R-MO). Sweigart also said her research revealed that the progressive Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization Media Matters contributed $16.4 million toward targeting conservative attorneys with bar complaints.Davis’s letter follows a separate ethics complaint filed by a conservative watchdog group to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics over Slotkin’s University of Chicago remarks, first reported by the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.Slotkin has defended her comments as a call for accountability for people who misuse taxpayer money or break the law. In the broader interview, she also framed the issue as accountability for alleged corruption.ELISSA SLOTKIN FACES ETHICS COMPLAINT WARNING TO YOUNG TRUMP STAFFERSThe Washington Examiner did not receive a response from the DOJ.Read the full complaint below: