Michigan Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin spent months telling America that Trump was using the DOJ to destroy his political enemies.
Now she's on a liberal podcast at the University of Chicago calling for the same thing.
And she was very specific about who she wants targeted first.
Seditious Six Member Survived DOJ Prosecution Then Announced a Plan to Weaponize It Against Trump
In February, a federal grand jury refused to indict Slotkin after the Trump Justice Department – led by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro – tried to charge her over a 90-second social media video.
She and five other Democrat lawmakers had recorded the clip together, urging active-duty troops to disobey what they called "illegal orders" from President Trump – orders a sitting president has every legal authority to give.
The Trump administration called them the "seditious six."
Slotkin declared the charges not sticking as a victory for "the Constitution, our freedom of speech, and the rule of law."
The investigation was "politicized" – Trump, in her telling, was weaponizing the justice system against his political enemies.
She even used the word "deter" – accusing his administration of using intimidation "to deter others from speaking out against their administration."
That was nine months ago.
At a University of Chicago event, Slotkin laid out what Democrats plan to do with power if they win back Congress in November.
Her plan starts with picking "signature cases."
Not just against Trump himself – because as she noted, he's "still there" despite two impeachment votes – but against the people around him.
"The people around Donald Trump who are doing his bidding and enabling this have no such immunity," Slotkin said. "He couldn't do any of this stuff without all of those people saluting and supporting it. So you go after the people who do his bidding."
The goal isn't justice – it's deterrence.
Slotkin said she wants young people leaving college to think twice before accepting a Trump administration job.
"I want young people coming out of school to say, 'Should I go work for the Trump administration? That sounds fun, I might get an opportunity.' I want them to be like, 'Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don't want, and so let me avoid participating in that.'"
"I want that deterrence message sent."
https://twitter.com/ThinkerChicago/status/2111560599167795418
Slotkin is a former CIA officer who served three tours in Iraq.
"Deterrence" is a term from military strategy and statecraft – the credible threat of consequences that changes behavior before any action ever occurs.
Her plan covers Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, senior aides – anyone whose name appears on a Trump administration org chart and whose decisions she can package into a "signature case."
A sitting U.S. senator is announcing a campaign to make working for an elected president something young Americans fear.
Democrats Called It Weaponizing the DOJ When the Target Was Them
Democrats spent fifty years defending the communists McCarthy investigated, calling his tactics "political persecution" and building an entire political identity around what they labeled McCarthyism.
Now one of their own senators is describing those exact same tactics – targeting people not for espionage or sedition, but for working in a Republican administration.
She's applying that framework here – making public service under Donald Trump too dangerous to risk.
The neighbor who joined DHS, the cousin at Treasury, the daughter who became a federal prosecutor in the DOJ – all targets, not because they committed crimes, but because they showed up to work for the president Americans elected.
Pirro couldn't make the indictment stick. Slotkin called that the rule of law working – then walked out and started designing a system where indictments don't matter, because the threat alone does the job.
That's what Slotkin is selling at elite university podcast events – not a housing plan, not a healthcare vision, but fear as a governing strategy.
Democrats can't win the argument, so they want to make sure the side that wins can't find anyone willing to govern.
Elissa Slotkin said that plan on the record, at a public event, and made clear she means every word of it.
Sources:
- "Slotkin Refuses Bondi and Pirro's Inquiry Request Over 'Seditious Six' Video," Washington Examiner, February 6, 2026.
- "Slotkin: Prosecutors Fail To Get Indictment Against Her," MIRS News, February 10, 2026.
- "Sen. Elissa Slotkin Not Aware of Any Illegal Orders from Trump," Fox News, 2026.
