The Pentagon said on Monday that it was investigating Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona for “serious allegations of misconduct,” less than a week after he took part in a video that reminded troops to refuse illegal orders.
Senator 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 brief video drew the ire of President Trump, who called last week for the lawmakers to be punished and suggested that they be executed. “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Mr. 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 on Monday that the video was “despicable, reckless, and false,” and he argued that the lawmakers, who 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 Mr. Trump’s accusations, all six of the lawmakers said that they have 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,” Mr. Kelly said on 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.
“We swore an oath,” Mr. Kelly told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “All we said is we reiterated what basically is the rule of law. Members of the military should not, cannot follow illegal orders.”
Mr. Kelly, unlike the other lawmakers in the video, is a retired naval officer and under the Uniform Code of Military Justice could be recalled to active duty and disciplined. Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan is a former C.I.A. analyst. The other four lawmakers are former military officers, but not retired and no longer subject to the court-martial proceedings.
“As was announced, the Department is reviewing his statements and actions, which were addressed directly to all troops while explicitly using his rank and service affiliation — lending the appearance of authority to his words,” Mr. Hegseth wrote in his online post. “Kelly’s conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately.”
Mr. Hegseth listed Mr. Kelly’s rank at retirement as a Navy commander, one pay grade below captain, which is the rank listed on his official Senate bio.
The military scrutiny into Mr. Kelly’s statement on the video comes days after the Pentagon urged the House to investigate whether Representative Eugene Vindman, Democrat of Virginia, improperly worked on behalf of the Ukrainian government before he was elected to Congress.
Mr. Vindman, a retired Army officer, told The Washington Post that the allegations were an attempt to “intimidate and silence” him.
Mr. Vindman and his brother Alex Vindman, who is also a retired Army officer, played a central role in Mr. Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, while serving on the National Security Council.
Mr. Trump was accused of trying to compel the Ukrainians to interfere in the 2020 election by publicly announcing a corruption investigation of Joseph R. Biden Jr., who at the time was Mr. Trump’s main rival for the presidency.
Greg Jaffe covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military for The Times.
The post Hegseth Threatens Senator Mark Kelly With Inquiry for ‘Seditious’ Video appeared first on New York Times.
