US President Donald Trump has criticised Democrats for threatening to investigate the activities of his administration and Republican Party donors.
He said he had ordered the Justice Department to open its own investigation into them, Bloomberg reports.
Democrats are preparing to take control of both chambers of Congress in January after a decisive victory in the midterm elections. They have pledged to launch a series of investigations into the Trump administration and warned key figures that they should hire lawyers.
Trump accused Democrats of threatening many people with impeachment. He called such actions extortion and said those responsible must be held to account, though he did not specify which crimes he meant.
The US president said Democrats’ threats amounted to using state institutions and the justice system as a weapon at a new level.
Representatives of the Democratic Party had previously made it clear they would use their new investigative powers to examine a wide range of issues. In particular, they plan to review evidence in the case of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and how the Trump administration handled documents that Congress demanded be made public. Democrats have also pledged to investigate Trump’s tariff and migration policies, share trading and other areas of activity.