The Justice Department has failed to obtain an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who recorded a video last year encouraging military members to defy illegal orders.
The feds launched the investigation in November after the video was shared on social media. President Trump and other leaders in his administration quickly blasted the clip and decried it as a threat to national security. But a Washington, D.C., grand jury didn’t see it that way.
“Today, it was a grand jury of anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law and determined this case should not proceed,” one of the six Democrats in the video, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, wrote Tuesday on social media. “Hopefully, this ends this politicized investigation for good.”
Slotkin and the other Democrats — Sen. Mark Kelly, Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Rep. Jason Crow, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and Rep. Chris DeLuzio — directed their message at active-duty members of the military and intelligence communities. All six were former members.
“Our laws are clear,” Kelly said in the clip. “You can refuse illegal orders.”
Almost immediately afterward, Trump wrote on social media, “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Shortly afterward, Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the investigation.
The failed indictment is the latest defeat in a series of political investigations led by Trump’s Justice Department, which also failed to obtain an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James and a man who threw a ham sandwich at National Guard members in D.C.
