Trump’s former defense attorney Todd Blanche warns Democrats against ‘outright threats’ of launching investigations into Trump administration members

On Sunday, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche left open the possibility of investigating Democratic lawmakers in response to any probes they launch into members of the Donald Trump administration. Responding to a question about whether such investigations by Democrats would be considered a crime, as President Trump recently said, Blanche replied, “It depends on what’s said. So yes, they could be.” Blanche made these comments during an episode of CNN’s State of the Union.

On Saturday, Trump urged the U.S. Justice Department in a social media post to investigate Democrats. While listing some of the Democrats’ purported plans for when they enter Congress, he singled out Senator Elissa Slotkin, alleging that she said: “She is going to go after all young people that believe in Republican Values, and that give even the slightest inclination to be a Republican.”

Blanche, too, referring to Slotkin during Sunday’s episode, said, “You have free speech in this country. You are allowed to be critical of President Trump, of me, of this administration.” He added, “But when the threats become so vile and so dangerous that you are telling people in college that they better be careful if they want to work in the Trump administration because somebody will come after them, at some point, you have to draw the line.” Trump and Blanche seem to be referring to Slotkin’s University of Chicago “deterrence message” from last month.

Blanche also took aim at Robert Garcia

Representative Robert Garcia, who is set to become the new chair of the House Oversight Committee after Democrats’ clean sweep in the midterm elections, urged Trump officials to “lawyer up” in a statement. Blanche addressed Garcia’s comment on Sunday. 

He said, “Department of Justice lawyers represent members of the executive, and the fact that Congressman Garcia is critical of that shows a remarkable lack of understanding of how government works.” He added, “And I would be very worried if I was a member on that committee.”

Besides Garcia, several other Democratic officials also issued warnings, though it is unclear whether they were aimed at Republican or Trump officials. Senator Ed Markey shared a social media post asking, “Live televised trials of Big Tech executives when?” and wrote, “They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing.”

On Monday, speaking to CBS Mornings, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to become House Speaker, expressed similar views. However, he spoke in the broader context of holding people responsible for acting against the interests of the American people. He said, “We’re committed to accountability and to holding the crooks accountable if you’ve been stealing from the American people, screwing over the American people or shortchanging the American people.” 

Blanche’s comments come as many Republican officials fear facing political maligning after the midterms. 

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