Democrats report prosecutors contact in “illegal orders” troop video dispute
Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video urging service members to resist “illegal orders” said they have been contacted by prosecutors in an investigation connected to the message, a step they portrayed as an escalation by the Trump administration. Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia reached out last week asking to interview her, after President Donald Trump publicly accused the lawmakers of sedition for their words.
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, said she learned of the outreach through the prosecutors’ contact with her, and she posted about it on her X account on Wednesday. She also described the outreach as part of what she called a broader strategy directed at dissent, saying, “This is the president’s playbook. Truth doesn’t matter. Facts don’t matter. And anyone who disagrees with him becomes an enemy,” and that Trump “weaponizes the federal government against them.”
Slotkin said the investigation outreach amounted to intimidation, adding that it is “legal intimidation and physical intimidation meant to get you to shut up.” Pirro’s office, in response, said it would neither confirm nor deny whether an investigation is under way.
Other Democrats who participated in the video also said they were contacted by Pirro’s office. Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan said Wednesday that prosecutors “would like to sit down with us,” and that, to her knowledge, “each one of us have received the same email and outreach.” Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado said the Trump administration “picked the wrong people.”
Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire issued a statement saying the threats would not change her stance, saying they “will not deter, distract, intimidate, or silence me.” The group, made up of four House members and two senators, all previously served in the military or in intelligence agencies.
The lawmakers’ reported contact comes after the federal government’s earlier attention to the video. The Associated Press reported that the FBI contacted them for interviews late last year after the 90-second video was released, and that the recent outreach came from the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which lawmakers described as a significant escalation.
President Donald Trump has labeled the video “seditious,” and he has accused the lawmakers of sedition linked to their message to service members. The lawmakers’ video called on troops to follow established military protocols by not following commands that violate the law, and they said the administration was “pitting our uniformed military against American citizens” while urging service members to “stand up for our laws.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that “these members of Congress did not violate the law” and that Democrats “stand firmly behind them.” It was not immediately clear, according to the AP report, what specific laws could have been violated in the video.
The Pentagon also moved against another figure connected to the issue: Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy pilot who participated in the video. The AP report said the Pentagon opened an investigation into Kelly in November under a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled on orders of the defense secretary, and that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has censured Kelly while seeking to retroactively demote him from his retired rank of captain.
Kelly is suing Hegseth to block the proceedings, saying the action is unconstitutional retaliation. His lawsuit, according to the AP report, argues that the First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech.