Three Democratic lawmakers said they would not participate in the Justice Department’s investigation into a video they made urging military service members to resist illegal orders.
Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Representatives Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania said they had rejected a request from Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a longtime ally of President Trump, to interview them about the video that the president condemned as sedition and “punishable by death.”
But his administration has not said what crime the Democrats are alleged to have committed to warrant being investigated.
The video shows six lawmakers who served in either the military or the intelligence community. They contend that their statements simply restated a fundamental principle of military law and were clearly protected free speech. They have dismissed the inquiry as a flagrant attempt to intimidate members of Congress critical of the president’s defense policies.
“What is happening now crosses a line,” said Ms. Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, in a video posted to social media on Thursday. “When the power of the federal government is turned toward intimidating people, including veterans who have sworn to defend the Constitution and duly-elected representatives of the people, for speaking the truth, that is not justice.”
A spokesman for Ms. Pirro’s office on Thursday declined to comment.
The Justice Department investigation was an escalation in the administration’s action against the Democratic lawmakers after they turned down a request from the F.B.I.’s counterterrorism division to sit for an interview last year.
Mr. Trump had “called for my arrest and hanging, and has sent the Justice Department after me and other members of Congress for stating the law,” Mr. Deluzio, a former Navy officer, said in a statement on Thursday. “I will not be intimidated by any harassment campaign.”
Representatives Jason Crow of Colorado and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire also reported receiving requests for interviews from Ms. Pirro’s office, and deemed those a further attempt to threaten and intimidate them.
The standoff could ultimately reach the courts.
Ms. Slotkin, a former C.I.A. analyst who served in Iraq, and the organizer of the video, warned Thursday in a video she posted to social media that the administration should “retain their records on this case in case I decide to sue for infringement of my constitutional rights.”
The senator’s attorney, Preet Bharara, sent a “notice of anticipated litigation” to Ms. Pirro on Thursday, and in separate letters to her and to Attorney General Pam Bondi noted that Ms. Slotkin retains “the right to sue for malicious prosecution and infringement of her Constitutional rights should you decline to promptly close this matter.”
Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired Navy captain and former astronaut, has already asked a federal judge to block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from reducing his rank and pension in retaliation for the November video. Unlike the other five lawmakers who participated, Mr. Kelly, as a retired officer who receives pay and benefits, is still subject to military law.
Megan Mineiro is a Times congressional reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early-career journalists.
The post Lawmakers Say They Will Not Cooperate With Inquiry Into Illegal Orders Video appeared first on New York Times.
