A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., declined a request by prosecutors to indict two Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin, on charges of seditious conspiracy, MS Now reported Tuesday night.
The attempted indictment of Kelly and Slotkin related to a video in November that they participated in with four other Democrats in Congress, on which they reminded members of the U.S. military that they have the right to refuse to follow illegal orders by superiors.
The video was released in response to ongoing extrajudicial killings by the U.S. military of crews of boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that allegedly were carrying narcotics.
The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors also tried and failed to obtain indictments against the other four Democrats, in addition to Kelly and Slotkin. Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania later indicated they were among the six reportedly targeted in the indictment effort.
The other two Democrats who made the video were Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania.
It is extremely unusual for a grand jury to refuse to issue an indictment when a prosecutor seeks one. An indictment is a charging document that a grand jury will issue if jurors agree there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed.
President Donald Trump had condemned the Democrats for the video after it was made public on Nov. 18.
Trump at the time accused them of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
“This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies,” said Kelly, who is a former U.S. Navy captain and NASA astronaut, in a statement on X on Tuesday, after news of the indictment effort broke.
“It wasn’t enough for [Defense 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,” Kelly said.
Kelly is suing the Pentagon to challenge its censure of him, and its effort to reduce his rank because of his participation in the video.
The former CIA analyst Slotkin, in a statement, said, “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 Trump, who said repeatedly that I should be investigated, arrested, and hanged for sedition,” Slotkin said. “Today, it was a grand jury of anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law and determined this case should not proceed. Hopefully, this ends this politicized investigation for good.”
“But today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the Administration. It was another sad day for our country,” she said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday night that he believes the six Democrats who made the video on illegal orders to the military should be indicted.
Goodlander, in a statement, said, “President Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate me, arrest me, and hang me simply for doing my job.”
“Today an American grand jury honored our Constitution by standing up to an outrageous abuse of presidential power and taxpayer dollars,” Goodlander said. “No matter the threats, I will keep doing my job and upholding my oath to our Constitution.”
Deluzio, in a statement, said, “I will not be intimidated for a single second by the Trump Administration or Justice Department lawyers who tried and failed to indict me today. American citizens on a grand jury refused to go along with this attempt to charge me with a crime for stating the law in a way Trump and his enablers didn’t like.”
“They may want Americans to be afraid to speak out or to disagree — but patriotism demands courage in this moment. DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP!” Deluzio said.
