Pentagon opens inquiry into Sen. Mark Kelly over what Hegseth calls ‘seditious’ video
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
By GREG JAFFE
The Pentagon said earlier this week that it was investigating Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., for “serious allegations of misconduct,” less than a week after he took part in a video that reminded troops to refuse illegal orders.
The highly unusual announcement is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to seek retribution against President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies.
Instead of employing the Justice Department as his means for punishment, this time the Trump administration seems to be turning to the Pentagon and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut, appeared in the video with five other Democratic lawmakers who served in the military or the intelligence community.
“Our laws are clear,” he said. “You can refuse illegal orders.” The other lawmakers repeated a similar message.
The lawmakers did not refer to a particular order that they viewed as illegal. But Kelly and others in the video earlier raised concerns about the fate of U.S. troops involved in the 21 strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
“What does this mean for their future if they find out later that they did this without legal justification?” he asked in an interview with NBC. “It puts them in legal jeopardy at some point.”
Others, like Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who organized the video, have suggested that Trump, based on his earlier statements, might deploy active-duty U.S. military troops to American cities to crack down on or even shoot at protesters.
The brief video drew the ire of Trump, who called last week for the lawmakers to be punished and suggested that they be executed. “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Trump wrote on his social media site. He shared another person’s post that said: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an online post Monday that the video was “despicable, reckless, and false,” and he asserted that the lawmakers, whom he disparaged as the “Seditious Six,” were encouraging troops to “ignore the orders of their Commanders.”
“Their foolish screed sows doubt and confusion — which only puts our warriors in danger,” he wrote.
In the wake of Trump’s accusations, all six of the lawmakers said that they had been subjected to death threats.
“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” Kelly said Monday in a statement. “I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”
As part of their training, troops are told that they should not follow orders that are illegal or immoral, such as the intentional targeting of unarmed civilians.
Charlie Swift, a lawyer and a retired lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, said that in his view the lawmakers in the video made a “true statement of the law” when they said troops should refuse illegal orders.
Kelly’s statements are also probably protected by the speech and debate clause that protects members of Congress from prosecution, Swift said.
As a retired naval officer, Kelly is subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and could be recalled to active duty and disciplined. Slotkin is a former CIA analyst. The other four lawmakers are former military officers, but did not serve long enough to retire and therefore do not receive a pension or fall under military law.
Hegseth’s threat to recall and punish Kelly for speech made long after he retired is without precedent, Swift said. Retired officers are typically recalled for crimes committed only while they were serving on active duty, he noted.
Hegseth dismissed that distinction, contending that Kelly’s remarks were “addressed directly to all troops while explicitly using his rank and service affiliation — lending the appearance of authority to his words.”
Hegseth’s threat came on the same day that a federal judge tossed out separate criminal charges against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, saying Trump’s appointment of the prosecutor was invalid.
Some military experts maintained that it was unlikely that Hegseth would be able to prosecute Kelly. “I have no idea what they’d court-martial him for,” said Eliot A. Cohen, a military historian who worked for President George W. Bush. “It’s preposterous.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, complained that Trump was “attempting to use the Pentagon as his personal attack dog.”
Hegseth listed Kelly’s rank at retirement as a Navy commander, one pay grade below captain, which is the rank listed in his official Navy record.
The military scrutiny into Kelly’s statement on the video comes days after the Pentagon urged the House to investigate whether Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., improperly worked on behalf of the Ukrainian government before he was elected to Congress.
Vindman, a retired Army officer, told The Washington Post that the allegations were an attempt to “intimidate and silence” him.
Vindman and his twin brother, Alex Vindman, who is also a retired Army officer, played a central role in Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, while serving on the National Security Council.
Trump was accused of trying to compel the Ukrainians to interfere in the 2020 election by publicly announcing a corruption investigation of Joe Biden, who at the time was Trump’s main rival for the presidency.
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