Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Democrats should leave impeachment of Supreme Court justices on the table after claiming the Court “legalized” President Trump’s alleged criminality, a preview of the fights ahead.
Speaking Tuesday with CNN’s Manu Raju, the New York Democrat said the incoming majority should pursue investigations, subpoenas, and whatever options the evidence supports, including against the nation’s highest court.
Breitbart News reported her remarks came days after Democrats swept the House and Senate in last week’s midterm elections, putting new leverage in the hands of lawmakers already signaling a broad campaign against the Trump administration.
Raju asked whether Democrats would impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in the new Congress. Ocasio-Cortez did not narrow the field.
“There are so many criminals in this administration, it’s hard to figure out who should be, you know, the order of operations. There are going to be many, many, many investigations. I imagine many subpoenas, and we have to follow wherever the evidence takes us,” she said.
"There are so many criminals in this administration, it’s hard to figure out who should be, you know, the order of operations. There are going to be many, many, many investigations. I imagine many subpoenas, and we have to follow wherever the evidence takes us,"
Pressed on whether Democrats would target the president himself, she went further and pulled the Supreme Court into the frame.
Ocasio-Cortez answered that impeachment should stay available across the board.
"I mean, I think we should leave all options on the table. Absolutely. I mean, of course this Supreme Court as well has also kind of legalized a lot of his criminality, and they’re pointing at impeachment. Impeachment in this Republican majority at that time was pointing at the Supreme Court,"
“We’ll see. We’ll approach it, but I think all options are on the table,” she added.
That claim treats contested legal rulings as cover for crime. She named no specific decision. She offered no charge that has been proven in court. She still put justices in the same conversation as cabinet officials and the president.
The posture is not new for her. In 2024, Ocasio-Cortez and progressive allies introduced House impeachment articles against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over alleged gift disclosure failures and recusal disputes. Only one Supreme Court justice in U.S. history, Samuel Chase in 1805, has ever been impeached, and the Senate acquitted him. Democrats lacked the votes then. The episode showed how quickly Court fights become removal talk when rulings break their way.
House minority leader-elect Jim Jordan (R-OH) said Democrats will not stop at one target. He predicted a third impeachment effort and wall-to-wall committee action.
"It’ll be every committee. There’ll be a third impeachment. They can’t help themselves,"
Jordan said the dragnet would reach the full cabinet and even private citizens.
"They’re going to go after everyone in the cabinet. We’ve already seen that with Secretary of War Hegseth. They’re going to go after people in the private sector, which I think is ridiculous. They’ve already sent hundreds of letters out to people in the government and outside the government."
He tied the coming fight to a Justice Department letter that, in his account, reminded Democrats they need a legislative purpose and cannot simply harass political opponents. Jordan said election-night talk already pointed that direction, including a “Lawyer up” warning he attributed to a figure he identified only as Garcia.
“So, I think you’re going to see all that. And every single committee will have to work every day, in committee, pushing back, going for the facts,” Jordan said. “Because the letter that came from the Justice Department highlighted what they’re up to.... And right now, they can’t cite one. They’re just attacking their political opposition. But it’ll be across the board in every single committee. And we are committed as House Republicans pushing back and giving the facts and the truth to the American people.”
Republicans already rejected one impeachment push aimed at Hegseth, an effort led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). Jordan’s message was that the next round will be wider, louder, and aimed at anyone within reach, including, in his view, Vice President JD Vance or a future Republican nominee.
While Democrats talk subpoenas, President Trump said Saturday he had ordered the Justice Department to investigate threatening letters that Democrat leaders allegedly sent to administration officials and other Republicans. Breitbart carried that account on Sunday.
The full text of those letters was not laid out in the available reporting. Neither was the full Justice Department letter Jordan described. What is on the record is the sequence: midterm losses for Republicans, immediate talk of investigations from prominent Democrats, and a White House move to put alleged threats under federal review.
An editor at The Bulwark, the anti-Trump outlet founded by Bill Kristol, was separately described as urging Democrats to focus on damaging Trump’s polls, popularity, and reputation. That is a political strategy memo, not a governing agenda. It fits the same pattern Jordan flagged, opposition first, legislative purpose later.
Impeachment is a constitutional tool. It is also a political weapon when it is waved before evidence is tested, charges are filed, or a trial is won.
Ocasio-Cortez called administration officials “criminals” and said the Supreme Court “legalized a lot of his criminality.” Those are her words. They are not findings from a jury or a special counsel report cited in the exchange. Raju’s questions treated impeachment as an operational choice for the new Congress. Her answers kept the Court inside that choice.
Jordan’s counter was blunt. He said Democrats will hit every committee, chase cabinet members, pressure the private sector, and attempt another presidential impeachment because “they can’t help themselves.” He cast House Republicans as the side that will demand facts and a lawful purpose for each probe.
Voters who just handed Democrats unified control of Congress will now watch whether that power produces oversight or a revenge tour. Supreme Court justices serve for life unless they resign, die, or are removed through impeachment and conviction. Turning that process into routine payback for rulings politicians dislike would drag the Court deeper into partisan war.
Lawmakers can investigate. They can subpoena. They can legislate ethics rules. Threatening removal of justices because one side dislikes the case law is a different project, and it tells the country the real target is the referee, not the rulebook.
