Requests for federal and Senate scrutiny
Davis, founder and president of the conservative Article III Project, sent his request Wednesday to Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who leads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the Washington Examiner reported. Beyond Slotkin, he asked the division to scrutinize her staff, donors and colleagues. Davis was previously considered a potential attorney general pick.
The letter followed a separate request for a Senate ethics investigation. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), submitted that group's complaint to Senate Ethics Committee Chair James Lankford (R-OK) and Vice Chair Chris Coons (D-DE).
CASA asked whether Slotkin's comments breached Senate ethics standards by threatening Americans' First Amendment freedom of association. The complaint is an allegation, not a finding of an ethics violation, and does not mean the committee has begun a formal investigation. The Justice Department did not respond to the Examiner's request for comment on Davis's letter.
The remarks behind the complaints
The dispute centers on Slotkin's Oct. 13 appearance at the University of Chicago with Vox editorial director Astead Herndon for his podcast, "America, Actually," where she discussed pursuing "signature cases" involving Trump and his associates.
"I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him," Slotkin said. She said she hoped graduates considering administration jobs would think, "Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don't want, and so let me avoid participating in that." She added: "I want that deterrence message."
Davis interpreted those comments as an attempt to discourage junior staffers from serving because of their political affiliations, rather than an effort to seek accountability for wrongdoing. "[A] sitting United States Senator should understand the gravity of advocating legal and professional consequences for political opponents," he wrote in the letter. He also cited Slotkin's Oct. 19 post on X calling for consequences to the bar status of lawyers who bring frivolous cases to intimidate and jail political rivals.
He had already laid out a proposed legal basis for an investigation in an Oct. 18 Fox News opinion piece. Davis urged DOJ to investigate possible conspiracy against rights under 18 U.S.C. § 241 and violation of rights under color of law under § 242. He also argued that the Constitution's Speech and Debate Clause did not protect Slotkin's campus remarks. The piece credited Michael Bicksel of the Chicago Thinker with first bringing the remarks to public attention.
Second Amendment posts and pressure on staff
Before sending the letter, Davis invoked the Second Amendment in his response to Slotkin. He warned that she "will learn why we have the Second Amendment" if she pursued "illegal arrests and political persecutions" of young conservatives. Another post read, "Learn about the Second Amendment, sweetheart."
Slotkin said Davis was "mobilizing death threats" against her and her staff, interpreting his posts as a warning that she could be shot. Davis defended his remarks to CNN, saying the amendment "deters government tyrants from actually taking illegal action." Online, he also described Slotkin as "unhinged."
Her employees became targets of other right-wing figures as well, HuffPost reported. A conservative account with more than half a million X followers published names and images of a dozen people it identified as Slotkin employees. Wade Miller, executive director of the conservative think tank the Center for Renewing America, called for every member of her staff to face "an avalanche of subpoenas."
Trump joins the criticism
Trump said Tuesday that Slotkin "should be tried." During an Oct. 20 Oval Office exchange, he also called her a "lightweight" and a "stupid person," accusing her of trying to frighten young people away from jobs in a Republican administration, according to a report carried by Yahoo News. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) joined the criticism, saying, "It is absolutely disgraceful to threaten young Americans for participating in politics and serving their country."
Slotkin rejected the pressure. "I'm not going to be intimidated out of standing up for the rule of law and the country that has given me everything," she said.
She has already been the subject of an unsuccessful federal effort to secure an indictment. That inquiry concerned a November 2025 video in which Slotkin, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and four House Democrats urged U.S. service members to refuse illegal orders. The Justice Department sought indictments alleging seditious conspiracy, but a federal grand jury unanimously declined to indict Slotkin in February, HuffPost reported.
