Skip to content

Attorney General Todd Blanche denies DOJ probing Democrats over speech

newsNov 13, 2026325,757

Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday that the Justice Department has no "ongoing investigations, criminal investigations, into words that incoming senators or congressmen have said," pushing back as President Donald Trump again demanded criminal charges against six Democrats over a social media video in which they told intelligence and military members not to obey unlawful orders. Blanche made the comments at a Justice Department news conference after Trump asked on his social media site whether the "Seditious Six" would ever be prosecuted; a federal grand jury in Washington previously declined to indict those lawmakers. Blanche said Americans should worry about heated political rhetoric but that "free speech is allowed" and that criticism becomes criminal only when it crosses into a threat, which he said had not occurred. The exchange followed a letter this week from U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz demanding Sen. Richard Blumenthal preserve records in a congressional probe of donors to the White House ballroom project; Blanche called Reitz "a great U.S. attorney" and said DOJ leadership is working with U.S. attorneys, including Reitz, on ongoing investigations. The White House has also warned Democrats that efforts to investigate the administration could amount to a crime, and Trump separately ordered the DOJ to investigate Sen. Elissa Slotkin for comments she made at a school. Sen. Blumenthal responded that he would not be intimidated and would continue his investigation into the ballroom matter.

MeidasTouch
@meidastouch.com

Virginia Giuffre’s brother on what happened when he confronted Trump’s DOJ about reopening the Epstein investigation and brought up Prince Andrew. He says Blanche told him: “Well, I can’t use that testimony because your sister’s not here and Prince Andrew is not going to cooperate with me.”

135221h ago
emptywheel
@emptywheel.bsky.social

Multiple reporters are getting the NYT reporting on Commerce investigation into Nvidia wrong. It's not JUST that Lutnick let Nvidia bigfoot the investigation. It's that the ENTIRE investigation was moved to DOJ, presumably to kill it. emptywheel.net/2026/11/13/d...

4872h ago
3 sources