Pete Hegseth looks to be heading home with his tail between his legs after a judge poured cold water on the defense secretary’s vengeful crusade against a top Democrat.
“You’re asking me to do something that the Supreme Court has never done,” D.C. District Judge Richard Leon said in a preliminary hearing reported by the New York Times.
He further described the Pentagon’s case against Sen. Mark Kelly as a “bit of a stretch.”
Hegseth’s campaign against Kelly comes after the Arizona Democrat appeared in an online video, posted in November, to remind serving military personnel of their duty to disobey illegal orders.
The clip drove top members of the administration apoplectic. Hegseth described the video as “despicable, reckless, and false.” President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called for Kelly and other Democratic lawmakers who featured in the video to be executed.
The Pentagon swiftly announced an investigation into Kelly, specifically for possible breaches of military law, given that as a retired Navy captain he remains under military jurisdiction.
Kelly, 61, who flew combat missions in the Gulf War before piloting the NASA Space Shuttle, has fiercely defended his position, promising to “fight this with everything I’ve got.”
Hegseth eventually issued a formal censure against the senator in January over the video, and initiated administrative proceedings to demote Kelly and reduce his military pension.
Kelly, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was present at the court for Tuesday’s hearing.
According to the Times, Kelly’s lawyers are arguing the Trump administration is “brazenly violating the separation of powers to punish a member of Congress for constitutionally protected free speech.”
Judge Leon, nominated to the bench by President George W Bush, was apparently inclined to agree. He told the court that any decision not to block Hegseth’s case against Kelly would risk endangering “many, many other retirees who wish to voice their opinion.” He plans to make a temporary decision in the case as early as next week, the newspaper said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon and Kelly’s representatives for comment on this story.
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