A grand jury has refused to indict several former military and intelligence lawmakers who made a video urging military members to disobey illegal orders, according to multiple reports.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, under Jeanine Pirro, sought an indictment related to a video featuring six U.S. lawmakers, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). It was not immediately clear which of the lawmakers were targeted in the failed indictment.
“Today, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro attempted to persuade a Grand Jury to indict me. This was in response to me organizing a 90-second video that simply quoted the law. Pirro did this at the direction of President [Donald] Trump, who said repeatedly that I should be investigated, arrested, and hanged for sedition. Today, it was a grand jury of anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law and determined this case should not proceed,” Slotkin wrote on X.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Pirro’s office for comment.
Slotkin said last week that she would not sit down for a Department of Justice inquiry with Pirro and Attorney General Pam Bondi over the video. In mid-January, Slotkin revealed she was under investigation over the video.
“Today, I sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro informing them that I will not be sitting down with them for their inquiry over a 90-second video I filmed in November,” Slotkin wrote on X last week.
Kelly also posted on X regarding the indictment effort and the grand jury’s decision, writing on Tuesday that “the most patriotic thing any of us can do is not back down.”
“This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies. It wasn’t enough for [War Secretary] 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. That’s not the way things work in America,” Kelly wrote.
Kelly brought a lawsuit against Pete Hegseth in mid-January over the war secretary’s decision to initiate rank reduction proceedings against the Arizona senator and retired Navy captain. Hegseth and Kelly have feuded over the past several months over the video.
Trump initially called attention within his administration to the video by posting the Washington Examiner’s story about the video on Truth Social and writing, “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
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Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) were also featured in the video. In mid-January, Crow said the six lawmakers had each been contacted by the DOJ.
“Today 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,” Goodlander said in a statement to Axios.
