\n<\/p>\n
Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin said on Tuesday that she was under federal investigation for her participation in a video last year in which she and fellow Democrats implored troops to refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n
Slotkin, a former CIA officer and military veteran who served three tours in Iraq, organized the video with five other Democrats with military and intelligence backgrounds. Donald Trump called it \u201cseditious behavior by traitors\u201d that was \u201cpunishable by death\u201d, an assertion that caused outrage and was quickly walked back by the White House, which clarified that the president did not want to execute members of Congress but wanted to see them \u201cheld accountable\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is unclear what possible crime investigators are probing. The video\u2019s core message \u2013 that military officers have a duty to resist unlawful commands \u2013 is a fundamental principle of US military law, international law and the US constitution.<\/p>\n
Slotkin described the investigation as an effort by an authoritarian president to weaponize the federal government and intimidate her into silence. In a video shared on X, she said: \u201cThis is the president\u2019s playbook. Truth doesn\u2019t matter, facts don\u2019t matter, and anyone who disagrees with him become an enemy and he then weaponizes the federal government against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s legal intimidation and physical intimidation meant to get you to shut up,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now, speaking out against the abuse of power is the most patriotic thing we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slotkin said she found out about the investigation from the office of Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia and longtime Trump ally, who requested to interview her about the 90-second video. The Guardian reached out to the US attorney for the District of Columbia for comment.<\/p>\n
The other Democrats in the video were Arizona senator Mark Kelly and representatives Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, both of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Jason Crow of Colorado.<\/p>\n
While the video did not point to any specific action by the Trump administration, it came as Trump carried out deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. \u201cYou all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution,\u201d the lawmakers said in the video. \u201cRight now, the threats to our constitution aren\u2019t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders \u2026 You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slotkin and Crow both said they were inundated with death threats following Trump\u2019s vitriolic social media post in response to the video, with Slotkin placed under 24\/7 Capitol police security. There was a bomb threat at her house, and police were also called to her father\u2019s home in Michigan in a practice known as \u201cswatting\u201d after a caller falsely alleged that he was trying to kill his wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cFacts matter little, but the threat matters quite a bit,\u201d Slotkin told the New York Times. \u201cThe threat of legal action; the threat to your family; the threat to your staff; the threat to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, called the video \u201cdespicable, reckless and false\u201d, and the Pentagon launched an investigation into Kelly citing \u201cserious allegations of misconduct\u201d. A former US navy officer and astronaut who flew on four space shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011, Kelly told MS Now at the time: \u201cI said something that was pretty simple and non-controversial \u2013 and that was that members of the military should follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, he filed a lawsuit seeking to nullify Hegseth\u2019s \u201cchilling\u201d attempt to reduce his rank and pension as punishment for speaking out against the administration. \u201cHis unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the president or secretary of defense doesn\u2019t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion or even prosecuted,\u201d Kelly said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cHegseth wants our longest-serving military veterans to live with the constant threat that they could be deprived of their rank and pay years or even decades after they leave the military just because he or another secretary of defense doesn\u2019t like what they\u2019ve said. That\u2019s not the way things work in the United States of America, and I won\u2019t stand for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slotkin shared a similar sentiment, telling the New York Times: \u201cI\u2019ve studied this kind of political authoritarianism in other countries my entire professional life. I just can\u2019t believe I am talking about it in my own country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin said on Tuesday that she was under federal investigation for her participation in a video last year in which she and fellow Democrats implored troops to refuse illegal orders. Slotkin, a former CIA officer and military veteran who served three tours in Iraq, organized the video with five other Democrats with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[408,22141,10210,13615,957,13843,960,3533],"class_list":{"0":"post-41661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-illegal","9":"tag-imploring","10":"tag-investigated","11":"tag-michigan","12":"tag-orders","13":"tag-refuse","14":"tag-senator","15":"tag-troops"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}