{"id":467520,"date":"2026-02-11T07:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467520\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T07:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:05:08","slug":"grand-jury-declines-to-indict-democratic-lawmakers-who-urged-service-members-to-disobey-illegal-trump-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467520\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand jury declines to indict Democratic lawmakers who urged service members to disobey illegal Trump orders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A federal grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict Democratic lawmakers who posted a video urging service members and intelligence officials to disobey any illegal orders<\/a> from the Trump administration, according to two people familiar with the matter.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Justice Department\u2019s case focused on a 90-second video clip that featured six democrats, including Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. The video, which outraged the Trump administration, had warned that \u201cthreats to our Constitution\u201d are coming \u201cfrom right here at home,\u201d and repeatedly urged the military and intelligence community to \u201crefuse illegal orders.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The declination is a rebuke of the administration\u2019s efforts to paint the six lawmakers \u2014 all of whom served in either the military or intelligence services \u2014 as dangerously undermining the president\u2019s authority as commander in chief.\n <\/p>\n

\n It was not immediately clear which of the lawmakers were facing indictments. CNN has asked the Justice Department for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n And while the indictment was rejected by the grand jury, it is also an extraordinary escalation of the Justice Department\u2019s willingness to prosecute who speak about against President Donald Trump and his administration\u2019s actions.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s rare for grand juries to decline to approve charges sought by prosecutors, but such rejections have occurred more frequently in recent months as the administration has pursued legally dubious cases. Prosecutors can still try to secure the indictments<\/a> against the lawmakers again.\n <\/p>\n

\n A grand jury previously declined<\/a> to bring an indictment against Letitia James, the New York attorney general who defeated Trump and his company in court, CNN previously reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n The video, posted in November, was met with immediate backlash from the Trump administration, including from the president himself who accused the lawmakers of sedition<\/a> \u201cpunishable by DEATH.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Within weeks, Slotkin and Kelly, along with Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, Chris Deluzio, Jason Crow and Maggie Goodlander, said they had been contacted by federal prosecutors as part of an investigation into their actions.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kelly on Tuesday called the attempt to secure an indictment an \u201coutrageous abuse of power.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t enough for Pete Hegseth to censure me and threaten to demote me, now it appears they tried to have me charged with a crime \u2014 all because of something I said that they didn\u2019t like. That\u2019s not the way things work in America,\u201d Kelly said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Slotkin said in a post on X<\/a>, \u201cTonight we can score one for the Constitution, our freedom of speech, and the rule of law.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Slotkin decried the Trump administration for its continued efforts to \u201cweaponize our justice system against his perceived enemies,\u201d saying that the case was brought \u201cat the direction of President Trump, who said repeatedly that I should be investigated, arrested, and hanged for sedition.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Crow issued a blunt warning to the Trump administration, saying Americans \u201cshould be appalled by the fact that Donald Trump and his goons at Department of Justice and everywhere else are weaponizing their justice system just to try to silence dissent and to crush political opponents.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNot only should Americans be angry at that \u2014 they have chosen the wrong people. If these fuckers think that they\u2019re going to intimidate us and threaten and bully me into silence, and they\u2019re going to go after political opponents and get us to back down, they have another thing coming,\u201d he said, warning the \u201ctide is turning\u201d as Americans \u201care rising up against the corruption and the rank abuse of this administration.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Deluzio said on X<\/a>, \u201cI will not be intimidated for a single second by the Trump Administration or Justice Department lawyers who tried and failed to indict me today.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Goodlander responded in a statement, saying, \u201cToday an American grand jury honored our Constitution by standing up to an outrageous abuse of presidential power and taxpayer dollars. No matter the threats, I will keep doing my job and upholding my oath to our Constitution.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And, Houlahan said on X<\/a>, \u201cThis is good news for the Constitution and the free speech protections it guarantees. The grand jury upheld the rule of law – this is a win for all Americans.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n House Speaker Mike Johnson, on the other hand, said the six Democratic lawmakers \u201cprobably should be indicted,\u201d after the failed attempt.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI mean, look, I think that anytime you\u2019re obstructing law enforcement and getting in the way of these sensitive operations, it\u2019s a very serious thing, and it probably is a crime. And, yeah, they probably should be indicted,\u201d the Louisiana Republican continued.\n <\/p>\n

\n Johnson told reporters he thinks the Democrats in the video went \u201cfurther\u201d than articulating the law as it relates to illegal orders.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey were suggesting that they disobey orders, and I think that crosses the line. It\u2019s very serious. I\u2019m glad new attention has been paid to it, and I hope that they straighten up their act,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kelly\u2019s participation in the video has also drawn scrutiny from the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is working to punish the senator over it by reducing his last military rank, which would lower the pay he receives as a retired Navy captain, and issuing a letter of censure.\n <\/p>\n

\n But those plans could be upended as soon as this week. A federal judge in Washington has promised to rule by Wednesday on Kelly\u2019s bid to undo Hegseth\u2019s plans.\n <\/p>\n

\n The judge has previously appeared skeptical <\/a>that the secretary\u2019s actions were constitutional, saying at a hearing last week that he thought Hegseth was trampling on Kelly\u2019s First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for his participation in the video.\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional details.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict Democratic lawmakers who posted a video urging service members…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-467520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}