U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office has decided to stop pursuing its case against the six Democrats who recorded a video urging soldiers and intelligence officers to defy unlawful orders, according to an NBC report.
The video, which featured Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, as well as Reps. Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, and Chrissy Houlahan, was released in November. In it, the lawmakers reminded service members of their oath to the Constitution and that they “can refuse illegal orders.”
According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, members of the military are only obliged to obey lawful orders and must refuse illegal ones.
The video infuriated Republicans, particularly the White House, with Trump describing the video as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” and reposting calls from his supporters for the six Democrats to be hanged.
The Trump administration attempted to launch multiple legal challenges against the Democrats involved, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatening to court-martial Sen. Kelly and formally censuring him, and the Department of Justice seeking a grand jury indictment, a move which was unsuccessful earlier this month after the grand jury found no evidence of a crime.
Following the failure to secure an indictment, Pirro’s office has decided to stop pursuing the case, three people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
While the case was abandoned in D.C., federal prosecutors in other jurisdictions could bring a case in their own jurisdictions, though NBC notes there has been no indication this will happen.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Justice and the White House for comment. Spokespeople for Pirro and the White House declined to comment when contacted by NBC about whether or not the president and Pirro had discussed the case.
The Daily Beast has also contacted Sen. Kelly’s office for comment. After the DOJ failed to indict the six Democrats, Kelly posted on X that the attempt was “an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies.”
“It wasn’t enough for Pete Hegseth to censure me and threaten to demote me, now it appears they tried to have me charged with a crime — all because of something I said that they didn’t like,” he continued. “That’s not the way things work in America.”
“Donald Trump wants every American to be too scared to speak out against him. The most patriotic thing any of us can do is not back down.”
Last month, Kelly filed a lawsuit against Hegseth for making him the target of an “unconstitutional and legally baseless” revenge plot.
“It appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech,” the lawsuit said.
Just one day after it was reported that the grand jury declined to invite Kelly and his fellow lawmakers, a Bush-appointed federal judge blocked Hegseth’s attempts to censure and demote Kelly for appearing in the video.
District Judge Richard Leon wrote in his opinion that while Hegseth was relying on a “well-established doctrine that military servicemembers enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protections,” it has never been established that this doctrine applies to retired servicemembers like Kelly.
“Unfortunately for Secretary Hegseth, no court has ever extended those principles to retired servicemembers, much less a retired servicemember serving in Congress and exercising oversight responsibility over the military. This Court will not be the first to do so!”
Kelly responded to the news with a video posted to social media in which he celebrated the ruling, but noted that the fight wasn’t over, because “Donald Trump has never been the kind of person to admit when he’s wrong.”
“Today’s ruling was a victory for free speech, but don’t expect Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth to give up. We have to keep standing up to this Administration when they undermine Americans’ rights,” Kelly wrote.
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