Here’s a pattern that’s becoming impossible to ignore: the Trump administration keeps trying to prosecute its political enemies, and grand juries keep refusing to play along.
The latest rejection came Tuesday when a grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers who made a video last November reminding military members they could refuse illegal orders. Federal prosecutors from the Justice Department apparently thought this was some kind of crime. The grand jury disagreed.
This isn’t the first time either. Back in December, another grand jury refused to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James after a judge already tossed a previous case against her. At what point does someone at the Justice Department wonder if maybe they’re the problem here?
When Reminding Troops About the Law Becomes “Sedition”
The six Democrats involved are Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado. All of them have military backgrounds. All of them released a video stating something that’s actually in military law: service members can and should refuse illegal orders.
Trump’s response? He called their actions “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Yes, in all caps. Because apparently reminding people about existing military regulations now qualifies as treason in the former president’s mind.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took things even further with Kelly, opening a Defense Department investigation and threatening to demote his military rank. It’s the kind of move you’d expect from an authoritarian government, not from officials who took an oath to defend the Constitution.
The DOJ’s Bizarre Legal Theory
According to The New York Times, federal prosecutors argued the Democrats violated a statute forbidding interference with the loyalty, morale, or discipline of armed forces. Let that sink in for a moment. Teaching service members about their legal obligations is now supposedly destroying military morale.
Kelly didn’t mince words in his response on X: “This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies. It wasn’t enough for 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.”
He’s right. It’s not how things work in America, at least not in the version of America most of us thought we lived in. When you start prosecuting people for reminding military members about their legal rights and responsibilities, you’ve crossed a line that shouldn’t even be visible from where you’re standing.
The fact that grand juries keep refusing to go along with these prosecutions suggests there’s still some sanity left in the news system. These aren’t partisan panels rubber-stamping whatever prosecutors want. They’re looking at the evidence and concluding there’s no there there.
A Pattern of Retribution
What makes this particularly troubling is the clear pattern emerging. Trump has been vocal about wanting to prosecute people who cross him, and now we’re seeing the Justice Department actually attempting to do it. The prosecutors aren’t succeeding, thankfully, but the fact that they’re trying at all should alarm anyone who values democratic norms.
This isn’t about politics in the traditional sense. It’s about whether we live in a country where government officials can use federal law enforcement to settle personal scores. The grand juries saying no suggests we’re not quite there yet, but the question shouldn’t even be coming up.
The real question now is how many more times prosecutors will try this before someone higher up realizes they’re wasting everyone’s time and making the Justice Department look like a personal vendetta machine.
