When Democrats won the House in the midterms and immediately started promising investigations, President Donald Trump fired back by calling on the Justice Department to investigate and imprison the Democrats he called "extortionists."
Naturally, Democrats freaked out and insisted they were only promising oversight. Here's the thing, though: Their rhetoric has crossed a line that Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett says could get them prosecuted.
Consider what they've said since the votes were counted. On election night, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released a victory statement mapping out his investigative agenda, branded Trump's relatives "The Trump Crime Family," and told Republicans to "lawyer up." Within days, Democrats were publicly floating impeachments of Attorney General Todd Blanche, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, and a slew of other investigations in search of a crime they can’t name.
Trump had seen enough.
On Saturday, he took to Truth Social and wrote that Democrats were "going around threatening a lot of people, including the Attorney General of the United States, and others, with Impeachment and many other forms of punishment, even though they admit they have no reason to do so, and there have been no impeachable acts committed, or even thought of, by the victims of this illegal process."
He added, “This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this.”
He's right. Democrats spent years telling us nobody is above the law, but the moment they won the gavel, they started using the law as a tool against the president's supporters. And it isn't just administration officials in their crosshairs.
"Also, they're threatening our Donors, some of the most respected people anywhere in the World, with imprisonment, and many other levels of punishment, just because they happen to be Republicans, or Republican supporters," Trump wrote. "This is Weaponization and Lawfare at another level." He closed the post with a warning of his own. "The imprisonment should be against these EXTORTIONISTS, and Republicans should get smart, fast!"
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This week, White House Counsel Will Scharf sent Garcia a letter cautioning that the Democrats' planned investigations of the Trump administration could turn criminal. The letter zeroes in on Garcia's "lawyer up" remarks.
Once Democrats take control of the House next term, they'll have the power to issue subpoenas, launch investigations, and hold hearings. Garcia and other likely committee chairs have already signaled probes of the administration, the Epstein files, corporate wrongdoing, and plenty more. Scharf reminded Garcia that Congress can only investigate for a legislative purpose, and he argued that the Democrats' public statements "have evinced a clear intent to transgress" those limits and "make it abundantly clear that any forthcoming investigative processes will be deployed to harass and aggrandize, rather than to advance any legitimate legislative end."
According to Scharf, the White House is "monitoring [Democrats'] abusive and capricious threats." He raised the prospect of a Justice Department investigation into the Democrats themselves. "Threats to executive branch officials designed to deter them from public service, or process designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient may cross the line into blatant criminality," Scharf wrote.
"The Administration will not be extorted and will not be cowed by unlawful process motivated by animus, pettiness, hatred, or any other unlawful motive to intimidate, penalize, or interfere with the lawful functioning of government," he continued.
Scharf is absolutely correct, according to Jarrett.
"The White House Counselor, Larry, is right," Jarrett told Fox News's Larry Kudlow. "[White House Counsel] Will Scharf correctly lays out the law. Democrats do have a legitimate oversight duty, but their recent rhetoric and the threats come dangerously close to crossing the legal line into illegitimate and potentially criminal acts under a statute known as deprivation of rights under color of law."
Jarrett ran through the Democrats' own words, from "lawyer up" to vows to prosecute every ICE agent.
“Larry, you know, those threats and many others depict an intent, arguably, by the Democrats to harass and intimidate and scare people or discourage them from serving in the White House, the executive agencies, the military, out of fear of being punished," he says. "Now that can be illegal and indeed criminal."
He added, “There's no immunity for such acts, even for members of Congress, Larry.”
💥NEW: Fox News Legal Analyst Gregg Jarrett Says Dems "CAN BE PROSECUTED" criminally if they deliver on retribution threats💥
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) November 13, 2026
"If they're gonna be issuing a flurry of subpoenas with the intent to harass and menace and instill fear — as their statements suggest — they're… https://t.co/rwy7nz1i3U
Democrats have convinced themselves that if they win a majority, they have a right to go out and punish their political enemies. Congressional oversight is there for the people, and when a party turns it into a tool of intimidation, they lose the moral high ground, which they’ve spent a decade pretending to. The law applies to both sides, and they’re about to find out that the hard way.
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