Accusing Warren of Being on ‘Warpath’ with ‘Tomahawk,’ Prosecutor Demands Preservation of Records Related to Trump Probes

A federal prosecutor in Texas is demanding congressional Democrats begin preserving records related to the coming investigations into President Trump, dropping his latest warning Sunday in a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren.In a missive laden with would-be epithets referencing Ms. Warren’s claims of native American ancestry, Aaron Reitz accused Ms. Warren of being on a “warpath” seeking to “spear” private citizens and businesses that have cooperated with the Trump administration.“You appear eager to wield your future gavel like a tomahawk, hunting for the scalps of President Trump’s private associates,” Mr. Reitz wrote. He also wrote of “war cries,” spears, smoke signals, and war paths. In a post on X, Mr. Reitz called the letter his first “arrow shot.”In his letter to Ms. Warren, Mr. Reitz wrote that she should preserve records and communications related to her “intent to weaponize congressional investigations.” Mr. Reitz threatened Ms. Warren with potential criminal investigation in response, including investigations for depriving other citizens of their rights. At 39, Mr. Reitz has already served as Senator Ted Cruz’s chief of staff, as an assistant U.S. attorney general for legal policy, and unsuccessfully ran for attorney general of Texas this year. As Mr. Trump has been demanding that the Justice Department investigate any member of Congress who looks into him, Mr. Reitz, who has served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas since this summer, appears to be following orders from Houston. It is unclear whether Mr. Reitz has any jurisdiction to order anyone in Congress to preserve records, with legal experts telling Democracy Docket that he is misapplying federal law in seeking to investigate lawmakers.Ms. Warren is not the only sitting Democratic senator Mr. Reitz has threatened with criminal investigation. Last week, he sent a letter to Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who will soon be the head of an investigative subcommittee. Mr. Blumenthal plans to investigate the building of Mr. Trump’s East Wing ballroom and how the donors to that project may have benefited from preferential government treatment. In his letter to Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Reitz called the ballroom project a typical “philanthropic” effort. “The American people are entitled to freely associate without elected officials terrorizing them with aggressive, harassing government action,” Mr. Reitz wrote. A third Democratic senator has also received a letter from Mr. Reitz. Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who once said that the threat of congressional investigations of corruption should be a “deterrence” for people thinking about working for Mr. Trump, is similarly being threatened with criminal investigation by the Texas prosecutor. “Your comments reflect soon-to-be-realized fantasies about weaponizing congressional investigations for the purpose of personal aggrandizement and punishment of people close to the President,” Mr. Reitz wrote last week. “In other words, your ‘oversight’ plans seem to have no legitimate legislative purpose and may therefore be unlawful.”Mr. Blumenthal responded to Mr. Reitz by asking the U.S. attorney to preserve his own records for a possible investigation by the Judiciary Committee, of which Mr. Blumenthal is a senior member. “I will not be intimidated,” Mr. Blumenthal wrote to Mr. Reitz last week. “The public deserves to know the terms under which dozens of American companies were persuaded to donate millions of dollars to the President’s vanity projects, and whether lawsuits were dismissed, contracts were awarded, or regulations went unenforced in exchange for that money.”After Republicans lost the House and Senate majorities in the midterm elections earlier this month, Mr. Trump seemed to accept that he would be working with Democrats for the next two years. He told reporters the day after the elections that he was prepared to sit down to talk with them, and later told “60 Minutes” that he believed he could hammer out a bipartisan deal on immigration. That short-lived optimism quickly washed away when Democrats began talking about investigations, however, and now Mr. Trump is demanding a strong Justice Department response to congressional oversight, including criminal investigations. Attorney General Todd Blanche has not been very enthusiastic about the idea, however. “This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This is Weaponization and Lawfare at another level.”Mr. Blanche told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he would go after Democrats if they actively threatened the president and his associates, though he said that criticism of the administration or the president are obviously fair game under the First Amendment. “You have free speech in this country,” Mr. Blanche said. “You are allowed to be critical of President Trump, of me, of this administration. But when the threats become so vile and so dangerous … at some point you have to draw the line.”

Accusing Warren of Being on ‘Warpath’ with ‘Tomahawk,’ Prosecutor Demands Preservation of Records Related to Trump Probes

Accusing Warren of Being on ‘Warpath’ with ‘Tomahawk,’ Prosecutor Demands Preservation of Records Related to Trump Probes

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