Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Democrats should leave impeachment of Supreme Court justices and President Trump fully on the table once they take Congress, a move Republicans call pure political payback.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told CNN that Democrats preparing to seize both chambers in January should treat impeachment of President Donald Trump, senior officials, and even Supreme Court justices as live options. In a Tuesday interview with congressional correspondent Manu Raju, she refused to take any of those tools off the board.

Newsmax reported her remarks came the same day the House blocked an impeachment push against War Secretary Pete Hegseth. Ocasio-Cortez framed the coming Democratic majority as a green light for sweeping probes.

She did not name individual justices. She accused them of enabling conduct she called criminal and said the evidence would dictate the targets.

“There are so many criminals in this administration, it's hard to figure out who should be, you know, the order of operations,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“There are going to be many, many, many investigations. I imagine many subpoenas, and we have to follow wherever the evidence takes us.”

Asked directly about impeaching Trump, she answered without hesitation.

“I mean, I think we should leave all options on the table. Absolutely.”

On the justices themselves she added, “We'll see. We'll approach it, but I think all options are on the table.” The New York progressive has long backed structural changes to the Court, including expanding it to 13 seats. That track record sits alongside earlier Democratic talk of ethics rules and term limits, ideas that still face a 60-vote Senate hurdle and a certain presidential veto.

Incoming House Minority Leader Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, predicted the outcome in blunt terms. He said Democrats will turn every committee into an attack vehicle and will chase a third Trump impeachment because “they can't help themselves.” Jordan warned the probes will hit Cabinet officials and private citizens alike.

Prior attempts already failed

This is not Ocasio-Cortez’s first run at the justices. In July 2024 she and progressive allies introduced articles of impeachment against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito after the Court’s presidential immunity ruling. The Washington Free Beacon noted the filing stood no chance in a Republican House and rested on claims of undisclosed gifts and refusal to recuse.

She called the immunity decision “an assault on American democracy” and claimed the Court faced a “corruption crisis.” The New York Post reported the articles charged Thomas with gift nondisclosure and recusal failures tied to his spouse’s interests, and Alito with similar ethics lapses. Only one justice in history, Samuel Chase, has ever been impeached by the House; the Senate acquitted him in 1805. No sitting justice has been removed.

Ocasio-Cortez declared at the time that Congress had a “legal, moral, and democratic obligation to impeach.” The Washington Examiner recorded her description of an “unchecked corruption crisis” that had “spiraled into a Constitutional crisis.” Fox News detailed the three articles against Thomas and two against Alito, all centered on gifts and recusal. Those filings died quietly.

Expected incoming Speaker Hakeem Jeffries has also called for major judiciary changes. Democrats now eye the simple House majority needed to impeach, even while lacking the two-thirds Senate vote required for removal. The Court has held nine justices since 1869.

Investigations first, then the rest

Ocasio-Cortez cast the midterm results as a mandate to dig into the Trump administration. She tied the effort to Hegseth’s handling of the conflict with Iran, which drew criticism from some Democrats and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Trump has defended Hegseth’s leadership of the War Department and rejected calls for his ouster. The House vote blocking the Hegseth impeachment attempt showed the current limits of that strategy.

Some political observers still view Ocasio-Cortez as a possible 2028 standard-bearer, even as the DSA’s Maoist caucus rejects her as too moderate for their taste. That internal left tension has not softened her institutional targets.

Court-packing talk remains a live Democratic project. Hillary Clinton has backed expanding the Supreme Court to 13 seats, matching the number Ocasio-Cortez has supported. Ethics codes and term limits surface in the same conversations, yet none of those changes clear a filibuster or survive a veto under current math.

The same Court continues to decide high-stakes cases that cut against progressive priorities, including border enforcement fights. One pending matter could clear a path for Texas to finish its Big Bend barrier after a lower-court halt. Those rulings feed the impeachment rhetoric far more than any proven high crime.

Ocasio-Cortez has also spent recent weeks policing her own party’s direction on social issues, at one point scolding Democrats for retreating on transgender policy while branding herself a “girl’s girl.” The pattern is consistent: pressure institutions that will not bend, then reach for removal when pressure fails.

House impeachment requires only a simple majority. Senate conviction has always demanded two-thirds. That constitutional brake is why Chase walked free in 1805 and why no justice has been removed since. Democrats will control the gavel in January. They will not control the math required to turn accusations into convictions.

Voters handed Democrats the majority. They did not hand them a blank check to settle scores with the Court or the president through endless process. Accountability runs both ways, and the Constitution still sets the bar higher than a press conference.