On a grade school field trip, I walked through the marble halls of the Capitol building and felt intimidated and inspired in equal parts. If a kid from New England worked hard enough, I figured, someday he might belong there. I’m older now, and warier of what happens inside those halls.
At a University of Chicago event on October 13, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said she wants “signature cases” against people who “enabled” President Donald Trump. She called the goal a “deterrence message” for young graduates weighing jobs in his administration, according to news reports. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) called it “absolutely disgraceful” to threaten young Americans for serving. Slotkin calls the backlash “manufactured outrage.” I call it pattern recognition. In my view, much of the mainstream press plays lapdog for the DNC and will repeat that phrase without asking what she actually said.
My argument is simple. Government power turns dangerous when it can be aimed at disfavored groups, and conservatives have spent 15 years learning how that feels. George Washington told his officers at Newburgh on March 15, 1783, that if men were barred from voicing their views, “dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.” He was answering an anonymous call to defy Congress, and he still defended the right of every officer to be heard. A senator who wants young people to think twice before serving is working toward the same silence, and she is offering the machinery to produce it.
Start with the IRS. In early 2010, according to the inspector general, the agency began flagging applications for tax-exempt status from mostly conservative groups. The lawsuits that followed alleged that screeners looked for names like “Tea Party,” “Patriots,” or “9/12,” sent hundreds of applications to a small group of agents for added review and delays, and demanded donor information the agency did not need. Lois Lerner, who ran the Exempt Organizations division, apologized publicly on May 10, 2013, was placed on administrative leave that month, and retired in September. In 2017, the Justice Department settled with 41 plaintiffs in one case and a 428-member class in another, and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the screening “was wrong and should never have occurred.” I can’t prove the Oval Office dictated it. The damage landed anyway. A rule that singles out a disfavored group does its harm no matter who signs it.
Letitia James offers a smaller warning. On July 19, 2018, she told the Bronx Democratic Party she looked forward to “suing him” as attorney general and called Trump “this illegitimate president,” months before she took office. A prosecutor who names the defendant before seeing the evidence has announced their intentions.
Trump’s circle felt it. The inspector general found at least 17 major errors or omissions in the FBI’s Russia probe, and two of four Carter Page warrants were conceded invalid, though it found no documentary evidence of bias. Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon served prison time for defying January 6 subpoenas, though a unanimous panel of Democratic appointees upheld Navarro’s conviction. I see an inner circle singled out.
Reporters and platforms felt it, too. In April and May 2012, investigators obtained records for more than 20 phone lines used by Associated Press journalists. Defenders call that routine leak-hunting, and they have a point, yet sources notice when a reporter’s phone logs end up in a prosecutor’s file. In an August 26, 2024, letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-4), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote that Biden administration officials “repeatedly pressured” his teams in 2021 to censor some COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and that “the government pressure was wrong.” Meta made its own choices, and not every removed post was true. Pressure from the Oval Office is still pressure.
School boards came next. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s October 4, 2021, memo created a task force to find federal options for school-board disputes. The Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group reported October 5 that the FBI opened 25 Guardian assessments on parents and that more than a dozen employees raised concerns. Those are the current administration’s findings, and an assessment is not an indictment. Most have been closed.
Arctic Frost reaches furthest. Verizon complied with a 2023 subpoena covering 12 phone numbers tied to 10 senators and one House member, seeking toll records for four days around January 6, 2021. A federal judge signed gag orders barring the carriers from telling the lawmakers for a year. Toll records show who called whom, and Jack Smith’s lawyers call the subpoenas “narrowly tailored” and “entirely proper.” Senate Judiciary Republicans say the probe also sought “invasive financial data” from Republican groups.
Slotkin told CNN’s Jake Tapper that lawbreakers should be “held accountable,” and she says a grand jury declined to act when Trump’s Justice Department went after her over a video urging troops to refuse illegal orders. Crimes should be prosecuted. I’ve worked as an expert witness since 2015, and evidence has to lead to a defendant. A deterrence message runs the other direction, from audience to case. Conservatives should also hold their own side to this standard, because power changes hands.
It plays like a Corleone career fair. Nice résumé you’ve got there. Shame if something happened to it. Three fixes would help. Candidates in both parties should sign a plain pledge against prosecutions chosen for their message, with real penalties for political witch hunts. Congress should require prompt notice to members whose phone records are subpoenaed, with judicial review before a gag order runs a full year. The IRS should publish yearly data on how long exempt-status applications wait, by category.
Voters and parents have a job, too. A graduate cannot stop a senator from talking. I ran the high hurdles in high school and college. Hurdles exist to be cleared. Encourage the young people you know to serve anyway and make sure someone is watching the people holding the subpoenas and holding them accountable.
Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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