WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that he censured Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over the former Navy pilot\u2019s participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.<\/p>\n
Hegseth said the censure \u2014 by itself simply a formal letter with little practical consequence \u2014 was \u201ca necessary process step\u201d to proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly\u2019s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.<\/p>\n
Investigating and now punishing a sitting U.S. senator is an extraordinary move for the Pentagon, which until President Trump\u2019s second term had usually gone out of its way to act and appear apolitical. A legal expert says the choice to go after a lawmaker will complicate an already unique case.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy post on social media, Kelly said he \u201cnever expected\u201d what he called an \u201cattack\u201d from Trump and Hegseth, recounting his 25 years of Navy service as well as combat and space missions.<\/p>\n
Calling Hegseth\u2019s move \u201coutrageous\u201d and \u201cun-American,\u201d Kelly said he would fight the censure \u201cwith everything I\u2019ve got \u2014 not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don\u2019t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawmakers\u2019 video to troops<\/p>\n
The censure comes after Kelly participated in a video in November with five other Democratic lawmakers \u2014 all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community \u2014 in which they called on troops to uphold the Constitution and defy \u201cillegal orders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, accused the lawmakers of sedition \u201cpunishable by DEATH\u201d in a social media post days later.<\/p>\n
The 90-second video was first posted from Sen. Elissa Slotkin\u2019s X account. In it, the six lawmakers \u2014 Slotkin, Kelly and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan \u2014 speak directly to U.S. service members, who Slotkin acknowledges are \u201cunder enormous stress and pressure right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawmakers didn\u2019t mention specific circumstances. But their message was released amid a series of military attacks on boats accused of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean and Trump\u2019s attempts to deploy National Guard troops to American cities.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon announced that it began an investigation of Kelly in late November, citing a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the Defense secretary for possible court-martial or other measures.<\/p>\n
While all six lawmakers served in the military or the intelligence community, Hegseth previously said Kelly was the only one facing investigation because he is the only one of the lawmakers who formally retired from the military and is still under the Pentagon\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
Kelly said last month that the investigation was part of an effort to silence dissent: \u201cThis is just about sending a message to retired service members, active duty service members, government employees \u2014 do not speak out against this president or there will be consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly, and some of the other Democrats in the initial video, have sent out fundraising messages based off Trump\u2019s reaction to their comments, efforts that have gone toward filling their own campaign coffers and further elevating their national profiles.<\/p>\n
The accusations Hegseth is leveling<\/p>\n
In his post Monday, Hegseth charged that Kelly\u2019s remarks in the video and afterward violated Uniform Code of Military Justice provisions against conduct unbecoming an officer and violating good order and discipline.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaptain Kelly\u2019s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n
Todd Huntley, a retired Navy captain and judge advocate general, called this a \u201cnovel\u201d situation that raises legal questions.<\/p>\n
One issue, Huntley said, is whether Kelly\u2019s comments fall under the constitutional protections of the speech or debate clause, which is intended to protect members of Congress from questioning about official legislative acts.<\/p>\n
A 1968 Supreme Court decision said the provision\u2019s intent was \u201cto prevent legislative intimidation by and accountability to the other branches of government.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t punish him for making statements that are consistent with the office he is holding,\u201d said Colby Vokey, a prominent civilian military lawyer and former military prosecutor, citing the Constitution\u2019s speech and debate clause.<\/p>\n
Huntley said that while the type of process Hegseth is using \u2014 known as a retirement grade determination \u2014 is fairly routine, \u201cas far as I know, they\u2019ve always been based on conduct during the individual\u2019s active duty service, even if it only came to light after retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I don\u2019t know if conduct totally after retirement would fit the requirement for such a determination,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Vokey also expressed skepticism, saying that while the Navy secretary can reduce a retired officer\u2019s rank and pay grade if it\u2019s determined that good cause exists, \u201cI have no idea what the good cause would be. I think that\u2019s pretty questionable.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Hegseth, Kelly now has 30 days to submit a response to the proceedings that will decide if he is demoted. The decision will be made within 45 days, Hegseth\u2019s post added.<\/p>\n
Huntley noted that Kelly also will have options to appeal the finding both within the military and in federal court. Vokey said a lawsuit in federal court would likely be the more effective course of action for Kelly.<\/p>\n
Toropin, Finley and Kinnard write for the Associated Press. Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C. AP writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that he censured Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over the former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6635,339,5411,38195,40287,48,52,51,7834,47,50,49,4446,63831,63834,63833,63829,63830,4417,63832,5050],"class_list":["post-121457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-censure","tag-death","tag-hegseth","tag-illegal-order","tag-kelly","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lawmaker","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-message","tag-other-democratic-lawmaker","tag-retired-rank","tag-sedition","tag-sen-kelly","tag-slotkin","tag-troop","tag-u-s-military-member","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}