How Many Congressional Democrats Is Trump Planning to Prosecute?

When the next Congress convenes in January, Democrats will hold large majorities on Capitol Hill—likely 56 seats in the Senate and about 260 in the House of Representatives. For Donald Trump, the numbers seem to pose an existential question: Exactly how many of those lawmakers will he try to put in jail?

If the administration’s recent online posting is any indication, that figure could be very high indeed.

Let’s start with the president himself. “Will the Seditious Six ever be prosecuted?” he demanded on Truth Social last week. “What they did was a great violation to our Country and its Constitution!” That’s a reference to Democratic Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Chrissy Houlahan, who last year released a viral video encouraging members of the military and intelligence community to refuse to carry out illegal orders.

The video enraged Trump, who suggested the lawmakers were “traitors” who should be executed. Despite the fact that the video was quite obviously constitutionally protected speech, the Justice Department in February reportedly tried to convince a grand jury to indict those member of Congress—an effort that failed spectacularly. Now, Trump appears to want his DOJ to try again.

The administration is also threatening criminal charges against members of Congress if they use their oversight authority in ways the White House deems improper. As Politico put it, “Trump wants Democrats investigating him to be afraid. Very afraid.”

In a November 9 letter to Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, White House Counsel William Scharf warned, “We are monitoring the abusive and capricious threats that are now proliferating from Democrat legislators who seek to abuse the legislative process to intimidate and to interfere with the lawful functioning of government.” Scharf added such congressional efforts “may cross the line into blatant criminality.”

Aaron Reitz, Trump’s US Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, has also been firing off letters. In the past five days, he has implied he could file criminal charges against Sen. Richard Blumenthal in response to Blumenthal’s investigation of White House ballroom donors; against Slotkin over comments she recently made about investigating Trump staffers; and against Sen. Elizabeth Warren over how she plans to conduct investigations as chair of the Senate Banking Committee.

Other current and incoming Democratic members of Congress that Trump’s team has sought to prosecute include: Brad Lander (acquitted on charges of obstructing immigration agents), Sen. Adam Schiff (no charges filed over mortgage fraud allegations), and Rep. Lamonica McIver (currently facing charges for supposedly assaulting or interfering with federal officers during an immigration protest). And in October, Department of Homeland Security agents raided the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar—a longtime target of Trump.

It’s deeply concerning that the Trump administration’s response to the midterms is to double down on efforts to prosecute its political opponents. Still, it seems unlikely the legal threats will have their desired effect. “I will not be silenced,” Omar wrote following the search of her house. There’s no reason to think her colleagues will be, either.