WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin said Wednesday that she and her allies need to "stay on offense" to fight against intimidation by the Trump administration following its failed indictment of her and five other Democratic lawmakers.

"I think that we've come to a really sad moment in America where the paradigm of leadership has come in completely reversed in 2026," the Michigan Democrat said during a joint Capitol Hill press conference with U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona.

"Instead of looking to our elected leaders, like the president, as setting an example, it is now up to individual citizens in their private capacity to uphold the values of democracy: free speech, liberty, justice," Slotkin added.

Slotkin previously suggested that she would sue the Justice Department over the episode and said Tuesday, "I certainly reserve that right of keeping all those options open."

Trump's Justice Department sought to charge the lawmakers, all of whom previously served in the military or as intelligence officers, with violating federal law for urging members of the military not to comply with unlawful orders, Reuters reported late Tuesday. The lawmakers broadcast that message in a viral November video that remains available on Slotkin's official X account.

"Sitting down and taking it and being quiet doesn't actually make you safer. Going on offense seems to be the only way to get their attention," Slotkin said.

The senator also told reporters that she sent a letter last week to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, asking them both to retain all their records on this matter.

President Donald Trump said in November that the lawmakers' video amounted to "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" and suggested the lawmakers be "ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL." Federal prosecutors later opened an investigation into the lawmakers with the goal of securing an indictment.

A majority of anonymous grand jurors in the case rejected the effort.

"Twenty anonymous Americans we will never meet who made up that grand jury told us more about the values of America than Jeanine Pirro or Pam Bondi or certainly this president," Slotkin said.

Slotkin said she remains unaware of what specific charges the Justice Department sought to bring against her and her colleagues. Kelly noted that, due to the secretive nature of grand juries, "we don't ever expect to really find out."

Slotkin also speculated that federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. were merely going along with a directive from Trump in their investigation.

"It was clear that when our lawyers sat down with them, it was just about checking the box and doing what the president wanted them to do. Their heart wasn't even in it," Slotkin said.

Following the video and Trump's response to it, Slotkin was assigned around-the-clock police protection due to an increased volume of threats.

"The president went high and right after our video, tweeted about us 12 times, kicked off both physical intimidation and then legal intimidation," Slotkin said. "The intimidation was the point to get other people beyond us to think twice about speaking out. But the real question is, if the president can do this to us, two sitting senators, who else can he do it to?"

Asked if the episode had taken an emotional toll on her, Slotkin said no.

"I would just say both of us have served in dangerous situations. Both of us have put our lives at risk. I don't — neither of us enjoy this. I certainly have worked alongside the FBI and the Department of Justice as a CIA officer my entire life. I have great respect for what the career professionals do. They keep us safe every single day," she said.

"So, I don't enjoy waking up and having those same organizations targeted and pointed against me for freedom of speech. I don't. But (Trump) is counting on us to feel weak in the knees and to bow out. And I think that's why we went the opposite direction."

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