Democratic lawmakers who cited military law in a 90-second video reminding those in the defense and intelligence sectors to “refuse illegal orders” slammed the Trump administration Wednesday for trying to have them indicted.
Sen. Mark Kelly told reporters that federal prosecutors’ unsuccessful attempt Tuesday to seek criminal charges against the six members of Congress — all of whom served in either military or intelligence roles prior to politics — is a “master alarm flashing for our democracy” and “straight from the authoritarian playbook.”
Federal grand jurors in Washington, D.C., refused to indict Kelly, of Arizona; Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan; and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, when prosecutors presented charges of seditious conspiracy based on the Nov. 18 video, the lawmakers said.
“They tried to have us charged and thrown into jail because we said something they didn’t like. Because we repeated what the law actually is,” Kelly said, referring to the established tenet of military law that requires troops to refuse to follow unlawful orders.
The lawmakers said they made the video partly in response to Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to major U.S. cities for crime and immigration enforcement operations. That deployment has since wound down in the face of lawsuits and court orders.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in January that he plans to demote Kelly’s military rank and decrease his pension as punishment for his involvement in the video, which Hegseth argues violates portions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice covering “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” and general misconduct.
Kelly, who has sued Hegseth over that attempt at demotion, stuck Wednesday to the defiant tone he has taken throughout.
“You’ll be damned sure that we are not going to back down,” said Kelly, who served as a Navy combat pilot and astronaut. “We’ve been in war zones for this country. We fought our country’s enemies. This doesn’t intimidate us.”
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who organized the video, lambasted President Donald Trump for trying to “weaponize our justice system against his perceived enemies.” She praised the “grand jury of anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law and determined this case should not proceed.”
Trump had called the six lawmakers “seditious” on Truth Social in response to their video, saying their behavior was “punishable by DEATH!” He also reshared a post that said, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”
He eventually clarified he was not actually calling for their deaths. Still, several of the lawmakers reported receiving death threats over the video after Trump’s posts.
The criticism on Wednesday went beyond just the six Democrats in the video.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the attempted indictments were “more political vendetta in persecution.”
“The Department of Justice, which should be working on the Epstein files and real crimes, is instead involved in political retaliation against Trump’s foes — real or imagined,” he added.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the episode “a despicable, vindictive abuse of power targeting Members of Congress and American patriots because the administration didn’t like the content of their speech.”
“Thankfully, grand jury members are smarter than Trump, Hegseth, and Bondi,” he wrote on X.
But it wasn’t just Democrats pushing back against Trump’s DOJ seeking criminal charges against Democrats.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina was clear that he disagreed with the Trump administration seeking charges. “Political lawfare waged by either side undermines America’s criminal justice system, which is the gold standard of the world,” he wrote on X.
“Thankfully in this instance, a jury saw the attempted indictments for what they really were. Political lawfare is not normal, not acceptable, and needs to stop,” Tillis added.
While Tillis was the most outspoken Republican on the issue, other GOP lawmakers expressed some discomfort.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he thought law enforcement “ought to be spending their time on making our community safe and going after real law breakers.”
Rep. Carlos Giménez, D-Fla., suggested the video — which he called “redundant,” as it’s already the law that servicemembers have a duty not to follow illegal orders — didn’t warrant charges.
“I didn’t see that there was anything there that would incite them, but I guess the Justice Department saw it otherwise, but the grand jury said no,” he told reporters. “So I guess everything worked out.”
Still, there were plenty of Republicans who still wished that their colleagues had been indicted. Chief among those Republicans was Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
When MS NOW asked Johnson on Tuesday night if he believes the six should have been indicted, the speaker suggested they should have been. “Any time you’re obstructing law enforcement and getting in the way of these sensitive operations, it’s a very serious thing and it probably is a crime and they probably should be indicted,” Johnson said.
He later backed off somewhat.
“Should they be in jail? Probably not,” Johnson said. “But we need to call it out as being wildly inappropriate.”
“Sending a message to young service members that they should defy orders is crazy to me,” he added.
Houlahan called Johnson “a man who has never worn the uniform” and took exception to his comments.
“I want to respond directly to that: freedom is not free. Our service to this nation is what allows Speaker Johnson to say the things that he says,” said Houlahan, who was a captain in the Air Force Reserve. “Our service is what protects Speaker Johnson’s speech, even when he says things that are malicious and uninformed. Our service protects him even when he lies.”
Crow, a former Army Ranger, told MS NOW on Wednesday that “if these f———ers do think they’re going to intimidate and bully me and get me to back down from doing my duty, they have another thing coming.”
