Five U.S. lawmakers said they were contacted by the Justice Department after they posted a video on social media calling on members of the U.S. military and intelligence community to refuse to comply with illegal orders.
The members (Senators Elissa Slotkin and Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Hoolahan, and Chris Deluzio) are all Democrats who previously served in the military, CIA, and naval intelligence.
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Lawmakers released the video in November after the U.S. military bombed ships in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean and after President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to deploy to major U.S. cities to crack down on illegal immigration and crime.
“This administration is pitting uniformed military personnel and intelligence professionals against the American people,” the lawmakers said in the video.
“No one should have to carry out orders that violate the law or the Constitution,” they said.
After the video was released, President Trump slammed the lawmakers in a post on his platform Truth Social, calling it a “seditious act punishable by the death penalty.”
According to CBS News, the FBI opened an investigation in November against five members of Congress, as well as Sen. Mark Kelly, who appeared in the video.
In particular, Kelly is facing a series of lawsuits for appearing in videos that critics say are unconstitutional attacks on his First Amendment right to free speech.
Shortly after the video was released, the Pentagon announced it had opened an investigation into Kelly and warned that the senator could be court-martialed depending on the outcome.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was considering demoting Kelly from his retirement rank and reducing his retirement benefits.
Mr. Kelly announced Monday that he had filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon and Mr. Hegseth over a campaign of “punitive retaliation” that trampled on free speech rights.
It is unclear whether Mr. Kelly is also under investigation by the Justice Department.
“Trump’s political entourage”
Crowe, a former U.S. paratrooper and Army Ranger, wrote to X that he and a colleague were being investigated by the Justice Department.
“Trump’s political cronies at the Department of Justice are trying to intimidate and intimidate us. Well, he’s taken the fight to the wrong people. I’m always going to uphold my oath to the Constitution,” Crow told X.
Mr. Slotkin, Mr. Goodlander and Mr. Hoolahan all shared similar posts on X.
US media outlet CBS News reported that Delzio had also been contacted by the Justice Department.
“Like my colleagues, I have been contacted by federal prosecutors who are investigating me for creating a video reminding military personnel not to follow illegal orders,” Houlahan wrote in X.
“The six of us are being targeted, not because we said things that weren’t true, but because President Trump and Secretary Hegseth said things they didn’t want anyone to hear.”
Mr. Houlahan called the investigation “ridiculous” given that President Trump had considered launching an attack to protect free speech in Iran, which is under a communications blackout following widespread anti-government protests.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has tested the limits of his presidential power as commander in chief of the U.S. military, ordering attacks on ships in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean that legal experts and Latin American governments have condemned as extrajudicial killings.
President Trump’s controversial deployment of the National Guard to cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., has also been controversial, saying military deployments should only occur when the United States faces a threat of invasion or domestic unrest.
In December, the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s decision to block the deployment of the National Guard to Illinois, citing insufficient evidence for his claims that an “insurrection” was underway, setting a legal precedent for other U.S. states.
