Elissa Slotkin Wants to Prosecute Trump Admin Staff to Scare Young Conservatives

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said during an appearance at the University of Chicago on Tuesday that she wants planned prosecutions of Trump administration figures to deter young people from taking jobs in the administration. The Michigan Democrat made the remarks at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, during a live recording of Vox’s America, Actually! podcast with editorial director Astead Herndon. A clip of the exchange circulated on X. Slotkin said she wants to examine what she called “signature cases” and target not only the president but the officials around him: “I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him,” Slotkin said. “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. 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. The account that posted the video, @ThinkerChicago, claimed the senator hopes the planned prosecutions will frighten young conservatives away from politics altogether. In a September 30 speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Slotkin argued Democrats should pursue prosecutions of Trump officials if they retake Congress, comparing the effort to post-authoritarian cleanups in Europe. “In Poland, they called this plan the Iron Broom, cleaning the place up,” Slotkin said at the time. “The goal here is to have a list of signature cases that go after some of the most obvious and harmful abuses of taxpayer dollars.” In that speech, the former CIA officer named Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro as figures she argued should be held accountable, telling the audience that misusing taxpayer money “can land you a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.” The comments come months after Slotkin was herself the target of a Trump Justice Department investigation. Pirro’s office sought to indict the senator and five other Democrat lawmakers over a 90-second video urging military members to refuse illegal orders, which Trump called “seditious” and “punishable by death.” A federal grand jury declined to return an indictment in February.