Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that he has formally censured Sen. Mark Kelly and launched administrative proceedings against the Arizona Democrat to consider whether to reduce his Navy rank in retirement, the latest twist in a weeks-long dispute about the lawmaker’s political commentary.
Hegseth said in a social media post that as a retired Navy officer, Kelly is “still accountable to military justice,” and he repeated unfounded allegations that Kelly has made “seditious statements.” The dispute centers on a video in which the senator and five other Democrats reminded U.S. troops they can disobey illegal orders, infuriating President Donald Trump.
The lawmakers have been sharply critical of the administration’s domestic military deployments and its deadly campaign against alleged smuggling boats in Latin America. Many also have publicly denounced Hegseth, a former Fox News host who spent years in the National Guard, labeling him an unqualified partisan who has damaged the Defense Department’s standing as an apolitical government institution.
Kelly responded to Hegseth’s announcement with a statement saying that he has risked his life for his country and to defend the U.S. Constitution — “including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out.” He called the actions against him “outrageous” and “wrong” and said that Hegseth “still doesn’t get it” if he thinks he can intimidate Kelly with censure or threats of demotion or prosecution.
“I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government,” Kelly said.
Hegseth stopped short of announcing a criminal prosecution of the senator but alleged that Kelly, a retired Navy captain, and the other lawmakers involved had “released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline.” In response, the defense secretary said, the Pentagon will launch grade determination proceedings — a process by which military officials consider the appropriate rank for an individual in retirement. Hegseth also said that he had issued a formal letter of censure “which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.”
“This Censure is a necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file,” Hegseth said. “Captain Kelly has been provided notice of the basis for this action and has thirty days to submit a response.”
The highly unusual punitive action against a sitting U.S. senator was taken, Hegseth said, in response to his public statements between June and December in which Kelly “characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders.” Hegseth’s social media post does not cite any examples of Kelly’s alleged violations other than the six lawmakers’ video, which has generated millions of views since it was distributed online in mid-November.
Kelly’s conduct, Hegseth alleged, violates two articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the laws governing behavior in the U.S. military. The defense secretary specifically cited Article 133 — “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” — and Article 134, a catchall that military officials use to target behavior they believe is bad for good order and discipline. Legal experts have said there is no law against pointing out what the law says.
The FBI also is involved in the matter.
Hegseth’s decision appears intended to create a chilling effect and to demonstrate that the Trump administration will threaten retired U.S. service members who speak critically about the president, said Sean Timmons, a managing partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey.
“The message is loud and clear. Toe the line or face the consequences — and we can ruin your life,” said Timmons, a former Army attorney. He said he anticipates that the grade determination review board “will likely be appointed with people aligned with the secretary” and that Kelly will be demoted in rank through the process. Kelly will then have the option to appeal, Timmons added, “but the decision-makers have already stacked the deck against him.”
Timmons said he was not surprised that the Pentagon so far has declined to go forward with a criminal case against Kelly, as Hegseth had threatened. “They were never going to be able to move to prosecution because the standard is so high,” he added. By deciding to pursue adverse administrative action instead, Timmons said, administration officials were able to leave the door open to significant punishment with a much lower evidentiary standard.
Whether the case against Kelly will endure is another matter.
“None of this will stand up,” predicted Eugene Fidell, a senior research scholar and military law expert at Yale Law School. While a grade determination can be opened against a service member under narrow circumstances, he said, the actions under scrutiny must have occurred while someone was on active duty.
“This is dead on arrival as a grade determination,” Fidell said. “It’s free speech, it’s a free country, still, and there’s no ‘there’ there in terms of the power to reopen a retired grade.”
Hegseth’s targeting of Kelly continues a chaotic few years within the military when it comes to disciplinary issues. During his first term, Trump issued pardons to service members who faced either murder charges or convictions, and last year he made moves to reinstate troops who had been discharged after refusing orders during the Biden administration to receive a coronavirus vaccine.
Trump also overturned a 2022 decision made during the Biden administration to reduce the Navy rank of Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) from rear admiral to captain after a Defense Department inspector general investigation found that he had bullied staff members, made inappropriate sexual comments and used alcohol in ways that colleagues found questionable. Jackson, a staunch Trump ally who once served as his White House doctor, shared news of the reinstatement of his rank in June, alleging despite the inspector general’s findings that his demotion was “politically motivated.”
Kelly, as a retired service member drawing a military pension, has been uniquely targeted by Hegseth in response to the video. It was organized by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Michigan), a former CIA analyst and political appointee in the Obama administration; and it also featured Reps. Jason Crow (Colorado), a former Army Ranger; Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania), a former Air Force officer; Chris Deluzio (Pennsylvania), a former Navy officer; and Maggie Goodlander (New Hampshire), a Navy veteran. Goodlander is married to Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser under President Joe Biden.
“Our laws are clear,” Kelly said in the video. “You can refuse illegal orders.”
Trump responded by calling the lawmakers “traitors” and claiming on social media that they should be “ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.” He added that their behavior was “punishable by DEATH!” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later clarified that Trump did not want to execute them but accused them of “essentially encouraging” chaos.
Kelly retired from the military in 2011 after serving 24 years on active duty. His career included flying fighter jets over Iraq during the Persian Gulf War and becoming an astronaut. He left the Navy several months after his wife, then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), was shot in the head during a campaign event and survived.
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