First posted on Instagram
Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan is facing a formal ethics complaint from the University of Chicago student who first brought her remarks to public attention, after she told an audience at the university that she wants prosecutions of the people who "enabled" President Donald Trump to send a "deterrence message" to young people thinking about working in his administration.
The remarks came at an October 13 event at the university's Institute of Politics, a live recording of Vox's "America, Actually" podcast with host Astead Herndon. Slotkin said Democrats should pursue "signature cases" of alleged corruption if they regain Congress, and focus not only on the president but on the people around him. "They have no immunity the way the president does," she said of staffers. "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,'" she said. "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."
The remarks built on a September 30 speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in which Slotkin described an "Iron Broom" approach: a list of "signature cases" aimed at the most obvious and harmful abuses of taxpayer dollars. A clip of the Chicago appearance, posted by The Chicago Thinker, the university's conservative student newspaper, on October 17, spread widely online and drew swift criticism, including from law professor Jonathan Turley and investor Scott Kupor, who called the remarks "disappointing and unprofessional."
Slotkin has since insisted she meant only people who break the law. In an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, she said: "If you are violating the law, then you should be held accountable, and that includes people who are supporting that activity. That's the point I was trying to make. You're not breaking the law? No problem. We can have disagreements all day long, and certainly Democrats and Republicans do. I don't care if it's just freedom of speech. I care if you're breaking the law." On MS NOW's "Deadline: White House" on October 19, she called the backlash "manufactured outrage" and said her point was, "do not get yourself involved in illegal activity." She also said Senator Mike Lee of Utah had lied about her remarks, and told critics to "spare me the pearl-clutching."
President Trump responded on October 20, calling Slotkin a "lowlife" and saying she "should be tried for what she did." Slotkin answered in a social media video: "If the president wants to investigate and arrest me... then do it."
The ethics complaint was filed Thursday, October 22, with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics by Michael Bicksel, a University of Chicago student and self-described conservative who first reported the remarks. "Recently at an event at my college, the University of Chicago, Senator Slotkin laid out a legislative-oversight agenda that involved using the legal process to terrorize members of the Trump administration in order to 'deter' young people from going to work for it," Bicksel wrote. The complaint asks the committee to determine whether Slotkin's comments amounted to "improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate," a standard described in the Senate Ethics Manual as applying to conduct that may be unethical even if it does not violate a specific law or Senate rule.
Bicksel also answered the defense that Slotkin only meant lawbreakers. "The substance of the 'deterrence message' is clear as day," he wrote. "Her target was 'young people coming out of school' (like me and my classmates) who are debating whether they should 'go work for the Trump administration.' We are obviously not debating — as she subsequently tried to clarify — whether to go commit crimes or behave unethically. Those who commit crimes should be punished for doing so. No one disagrees with that. All we are debating is public service, pure and simple, and Senator Slotkin says we should think twice about doing so because it might provoke the full power of the United States Senate."
A complaint is an allegation, not a finding, and no committee action has been reported. Slotkin has not withdrawn the original "deterrence message" remark.