The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board ripped into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “embarrassing” crusade against a U.S. senator after a federal judge found it amounted to “retaliation.”
Hegseth, who calls himself the “Secretary of War,” sought to strip Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona of his rank and pension after Kelly and five other Democratic members of Congress released a video citing the Military Code of Justice and reminding service members that they had a duty to disobey illegal orders.
Trump accused the lawmakers of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
“Enter Mr. Hegseth, who takes tango lessons whenever Mr. Trump says dance,” the editors of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Journal wrote.
The piece noted that last week, a federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush issued a blistering opinion blocking Hegseth’s effort to censure and demote Kelly, a combat veteran and former astronaut who retired in 2011 with the rank of captain.
The opinion started out bad for Hegseth and only got worse, as Judge Richard Leon found that Hegseth’s actions were a clear case of illegal retaliation for speech he did not like. If Hegseth had his way, the entire representative system of U.S. government would cease to function, Leon wrote.
“This legal humiliation is becoming a habit for Trump officials,” the Journal’s editors wrote.
They described how a grand jury also refused last week to indict the lawmakers for interfering with the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the U.S. armed forces, a failure for U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, who had brought the charges.
“News reports say not a single member of the grand jury voted to indict, a stunning rebuke for Ms. Pirro, who also seems to believe that her priority is lawfare instead of pursuing actual criminals,” the editors wrote.
Trump seems to expect “slavish loyalty” of his deputies—or at least those deputies act as if they think he does, they continued.
“But as they lose in court, they are doing their reputations no favors.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Defense Department for comment.
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