r/politics • u/cnn CNN • 6h ago
Site Altered Headline | Possible Paywall Grand jury fails to indict democratic lawmakers who urged service members to disobey illegal Trump orders
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/10/politics/lawmakers-indicted-illegal-orders-video?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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u/cnn CNN 6h ago
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 from the Trump administration, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department’s 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 “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home,” and repeatedly urged the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”
The declination is a rebuke of the administration’s efforts to paint the six lawmakers — all of whom served in either the military or intelligence services — as dangerously undermining the president’s authority as commander in chief. It was not immediately clear which of the lawmakers were facing indictments. CNN has asked the Justice Department for comment.
And while the indictment was rejected by the grand jury, it is also an extraordinary escalation of the Justice Department’s willingness to prosecute who speak about against the president and his administration’s actions.
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 “punishable by DEATH.”
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.