Trump's prosecutors just tried — and failed — to jail six Democrats in Congress.
Trump said their video warning troops about "illegal orders" was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Yesterday, a grand jury declined to charge them.
Something extraordinary happened in a federal courthouse this week. Federal prosecutors in Washington, working under Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, went to a grand jury seeking criminal indictments against six Democratic members of Congress. Their alleged crime? Posting a video reminding members of the U.S. military and intelligence community that they are legally obligated to refuse unlawful orders. The grand jury said: NO.
That refusal — by ordinary citizens behind closed doors — may prove to be one of the most important acts of democratic resistance of Trump’s second term. It’s not the first time a grand jury has rebuffed the administration. They’ve rejected charges against other Trump targets, like New York Attorney General Letitia James and a man who threw a sandwich at federal officers.
The six lawmakers were veterans, former intelligence officers, and national security professionals, including Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, along with Representatives Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander, and Chris Deluzio. Each had served in uniform or in the national security world.
Their “crime” was warning U.S. military and intelligence personnel not to commit crimes.
In their video last fall, the six lawmakers stated a basic principle embedded in U.S. military law since World War II: service members have a duty to refuse illegal orders. That’s it. They released the video as Trump’s lethal boat strikes were ramping up in the Caribbean and he was openly discussing deploying active-duty troops inside American cities. The lawmakers warned that “threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home,” and reminded viewers: “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”
For that, Trump erupted.
On social media, he labeled the video “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” and amplified a post calling for them to be hanged. His allies quickly followed suit. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted the lawmakers as the “Seditious Six,” accusing them of encouraging troops to “ignore the orders of their Commanders.”
According to people familiar with the case, Justice Department prosecutors argued to the grand jury that the six lawmakers had violated a federal statute prohibiting interference with the “loyalty, morale or discipline” of the armed forces.
This is an extraordinary theory (and an extraordinarily dangerous one). Members of Congress are not outside the First Amendment, nor are they barred from discussing the limits of lawful military authority. In fact, Congress writes the laws that define those limits. Criminalizing a reminder about illegal orders would effectively make it a crime to restate the Constitution. I struggle to think of a more ham-fisted authoritarian move than that.
Yet the case went ahead anyway. It was carried forward by one of Trump’s dutiful lieutenants, a former Fox News commentator, who greenlit a prosecution that is without precedent in American history. Experts could cite no similar case in which an administration sought to put sitting members of Congress in handcuffs for obviously protected free speech.
But this week the buzzsaw of retaliation met resistance.
While prosecutors can file charges, they cannot control a grand jury. Grand juries are made up of regular people — like local teachers, retirees, small business owners, parents — who are pulled into a room and asked a simple question: is there probable cause to believe a crime was committed?
In this case, after hearing the government’s argument, they declined to indict.
That’s a big deal. Actually, it’s a stunning rebuke. Before Trump’s return to office, it was rare for grand juries to reject a prosecutor’s request at all. In virtually all cases, they are summoned to the courthouse, presented with strong cases by prosecutors who are vastly more skilled in legal theory than ordinary people, and they agree a crime was committed. Now, as his appointees push more aggressive and politicized cases, rejections are becoming almost common.
But it wasn’t just the grand jury.
Even earlier in the saga, there were warning signs inside the system. Reporting revealed a major “rift” within the FBI over whether to open a formal criminal probe at all. Career officials in the FBI’s Washington Field Office reportedly argued there was a “lack of legal and factual basis” to pursue the lawmakers. In other words, even before the case reached a grand jury, professionals inside law enforcement were pushing back against political pressure from above.
Yet Trump’s team tried to bend the system. Again and again. And despite that, the system pushed back.
The defiance is spreading beyond Washington.
To me, the most important part of this story isn’t that six lawmakers avoided an absurd and unjustifiable indictment at the hands of a wannabe dictator. That’s huge, of course, because it says a lot about what’s happening in the United States of America. But the bigger story is that ordinary folks, placed inside the machinery of Trump’s justice system, are increasingly refusing to help turn it into a weapon. These grand jurors weren’t activists and protesters tweeting resistance hashtags.
They were citizens performing a civic duty. When confronted with an attempt to criminalize political speech, they drew a line. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face this Wednesday, it should.
Meanwhile, folks around the country are refusing to be told it’s “illegal” to urge government workers not to do things that are illegal for the president.
Thousands of people around America participated in DEFIANCE.org’s “Obey Only Lawful Orders” campaign, launched in solidarity with the six Democratic lawmakers. In partnership with Whistleblower Aid — the organization that has represented whistleblowers who’ve recently exposed ICE’s warrantless home entries and Tulsi Gabbard’s questionable conduct — we launched a public campaign aimed at U.S. servicemembers with a simple, legally grounded message: obey only lawful orders.
That effort included billboards and outreach near major military communities in Florida, directing troops to independent legal resources if they believe they’ve been given a “manifestly unlawful order.” The point was not to encourage blanket disobedience. It was to reinforce what military law already says — that service members are bound to follow lawful commands, and that in the rare, clear-cut cases where an order is patently illegal, there are lawful channels and legal support available.
I couldn’t be prouder that Americans everywhere are refusing to be intimidated by Trump’s lawless threats. While the president and his allies tried vainly to turn a constitutional reminder into a crime, ordinary citizens helped put up billboards that defended the rule of law. This week, yet another group of Americans sat down in a grand jury room, listened to Trump’s prosecutors ask for their help in jailing elected Democratic lawmakers, and said “hell no.”
And far and wide across this country, including in the cold reaches of Minnesota, folks are taking to the streets for the first time in their lives in visible protest against a man who calls them “terrorists” for exercising their First Amendment rights.
The public is not playing along with Trump’s repression. And every time that happens, it sends a message to him more powerful than any press conference: You can try to scare the country into silence, Mr. President, but you still have to get past the people in the room.
Your friend, in defiance,
Miles Taylor
So proud of ordinary citizens on the grand jury for rebuking Trump’s retaliatory behavior! These members of Congress had every right to support our military!
This is fantastic news! I truly don't want to believe that those idiots actually tried to prosecute members of Congress for restating the UCMJ, yet here we are