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democratic senator mark kelly Arizona said on Tuesday that pentagonThe increased scrutiny of his comments urging soldiers to reject illegal orders is part of an effort to quell dissent within the military.
“This is about sending a message to retired service members, active duty service members, government employees – do not speak out against this president or there will be consequences,” Kelly told reporters after a classified briefing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the secretary of state. marco rubio and another about deadly attacks on alleged drug boats in Latin America, which Kelly and other lawmakers have opposed.
Kelly said Department of Defense He did not inform them about the investigation because “he really cares about the public message.”
The Pentagon confirmed late Monday that Hegseth’s office had escalated its initial review of Kelly over “serious allegations of misconduct” to an official command investigation.
Command investigations are a very common tool used by military officials to investigate allegations of wrongdoing that do not rise to the level of criminal charges. It is much less common to use them against a retired service member, much less a sitting member of Congress.
The investigation has heightened tensions between the Democratic senator, who was a Navy fighter pilot before becoming an astronaut, and the Trump administration’s Pentagon, as lawmakers step up scrutiny of U.S. military strikes on boats accused of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Kelly’s lawyers withdraw from the investigation
In a letter to the Pentagon this week, Kelly’s lawyers said there is “no lawful basis for any type of action” and “any such effort would be unconstitutional and an extraordinary abuse of power.”
Investigation ordered after President donald trump He accused six Democratic lawmakers of demanding the “death penalty” after they appeared on video urging soldiers to disobey undefined illegal orders.
Hegseth said Kelly is the only one of the lawmakers who has formally retired from the military and is still under the jurisdiction of the Pentagon, arguing that “Kelly’s conduct brings the armed forces into disrepute.”
The Defense Department also said it could recall Kelly to active duty pending court-martial proceedings.
Legal experts have said that Kelly did nothing illegal, that the Pentagon was misreading military law and that as a member of Congress he could not be prosecuted by the executive branch.
Former JAG sees no way to court-martial
Todd Huntley, a retired Navy captain and judge advocate general, said he believed that if Pentagon officials had truly thought there was something about Kelly’s actions that could have warranted a court-martial, the investigation likely would have been turned over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
“There’s a realization that they’re not going to be able to court-martial him and it’s some type of administrative action,” Huntley said.
He said one of the most likely actions Kelly could face is a non-punitive letter of censure. This will have almost no real impact since Kelly is no longer in active service.
The video was released in November by Democrats who served in the military or intelligence community: Kelly, Senator Elissa Slotkin and Representatives Jason Crow, Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan. The lawmaker, who is seen as a potential future aspirant for high office and has raised his political profile with wide exposure of the video, “spoke directly to members of the military.”
Kelly told the troops “you can refuse illegal orders,” while other lawmakers in the video said they needed the troops to “stand up for our laws… our Constitution.”
The lawmakers did not mention specific circumstances. But his message was issued amid the boat attack campaign and Trump’s efforts to deploy National Guard troops to US cities.
Democrats and others have called for a boat strike
The issue of illegal orders became even more prominent after revelations of a follow-up attack that killed two survivors of a boat wreck after the first collision, which some legal experts and lawmakers say was against the rules of war.
Trump and many Republican lawmakers have argued that this was justified because people were trying to turn the boat around and stay in the fight. The administration says the overall strikes are aimed at stemming the flow of narcotics into the country and that the US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
When the Pentagon announced the investigation of Kelly, the Pentagon suggested that his statements interfered with “the loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces”, citing federal law that prohibits such actions.
Kelly has rejected Trump and the Pentagon’s claims and said he has upheld his oath to the Constitution.
“They are trying to silence people,” he said Tuesday. “But in this case, they picked the wrong guy. So I’m not going to keep quiet about it.”