FBI Investigating Dems Who Warned Military of Unlawful Orders

The FBI has requested interviews with a group of Democratic lawmakers who reminded U.S. military and intelligence service members in a video last week that they are obligated to refuse illegal orders.

The requested interviews, which were reported by Reuters, appear to be the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) latest escalation in its efforts to crack down on perceived enemies of the president for their political speech.

In response, four of the lawmakers — Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Penn.), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Penn.) — released a statement condemning the inquiry.

“President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress,” they said. “No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.”

In a post on social media, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) wrote that Trump “uses legal harassment as an intimidation tactic to scare people out of speaking up.”

“This is not the America I know, and I’m not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country and our Constitution,” she added. 

In the video, the six Democrats, who all served in either the military or the intelligence community, told service members that they had sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and had a legal responsibility to refuse unlawful orders.

In response to their message, President Donald Trump called for the lawmakers to be imprisoned and executed for what he termed “seditious behavior,” a concept that does not exist under U.S. law.

“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Trump said in a social media post.

The DOJ and FBI contacted the Capitol Police to arrange interviews with the lawmakers a day after the Department of Defense (DOD) said it may recall Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a decorated Navy veteran and former astronaut who appeared in the video, back into active duty potentially to face military charges.

The DOD claimed the allegations pertained to laws barring retired servicemembers from issuing orders to active duty soldiers or interfering with the “loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline” of the armed forces.

However, nowhere in the video did Kelly and the other lawmakers issue orders to servicemembers. Kelly, in fact, said that under U.S. law, “you can refuse illegal orders.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggested that the department would have sought investigations against all of the lawmakers but “five of the six individuals in that video do not fall under [its] jurisdiction.”

“The Department of Defense is coming after me because they don’t like what I have to say. Let’s call this what it is: Political persecution,” Kelly said of the DOD’s threatened probe in a statement Monday. “You can bet this was ordered by Donald Trump and carried out by Pete Hegseth. If Trump is trying to intimidate me from doing my job, it won’t work.”

The lawmakers released the video after Trump federalized thousands of National Guard troops for domestic deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon, as part of his effort to integrate the military into routine policing. 

Courts have blocked many of the deployments, and the Supreme Court is currently  considering his attempted deployment in Chicago.

The lawmakers’ warnings also came amid concerns from military leaders that Trump is politicizing the armed forces and may be ordering soldiers to carry out illegal strikes on boats in the Caribbean. 

In a bizarre address earlier this year, Trump told hundreds of generals to prepare for war against an unspecified “enemy from within.” 

Kelly suggested Trump, through his comments, could be attempting to incite political violence against him and the other lawmakers.

“He’s got millions of supporters. People listen to what he says more so than anybody else in the country. And he should be careful with his words,” Kelly said, noting that former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, his wife, was shot in the head during a 2011 political event in Tucson, Arizona. 

Giffords survived the attempted assassination with traumatic brain injuries. Six other people were killed.

“We know what political violence is,” Kelly said. “And we know what causes it, too.”

Some of the lawmakers have reported a wave of threats against them after Trump publicly attacked them over the video.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who took part in the video, wrote in a social media post Friday that “threats exploded” against him and his office after Trump’s statements. 

He published a recording of some of the disturbing voice messages he had received, several of which featured callers wishing death on his family. He also said someone made a bomb threat against his district office in Aurora, Colorado.

This story has been updated to include new information.