Grand jury declines to indict lawmakers who urged troops to refuse unlawful orders

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of Senator Mark Kelly (Reuters photo by Mike Segar)

By Kanishka Singh and Andrew Goudsward (Reuters)

WASHINGTON, Feb 10  -  A grand jury has rejected an attempt by the Justice Department of President Donald Trump's administration to indict some Democratic U.S. lawmakers after they urged members of the military not to comply with unlawful orders, a source familiar with the matter said late on Tuesday.

Late last year, Trump, a Republican, assailed the Democratic lawmakers who told members of the U.S. military in a video that they must refuse any illegal orders. Trump called them traitors who could face execution.

The six Democratic lawmakers in the video included Senator Elise Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Iraq war veteran, Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy veteran, as well as U.S. Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan.

Prosecutors sought to charge the lawmakers with violating a federal law barring interference with the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the U.S. armed forces, the source said, asking not to be identified. The indictment was pursued by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro.

The grand jury decision was reported earlier by NBC News and the New York Times.

The Democrats criticized the attempt to indict them.

"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," Slotkin said on social media website X. 

"Today, it was a grand jury of anonymous American citizens who upheld the rule of law and determined this case should not proceed," she said.

The U.S. Justice Department had no immediate comment. 

"This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies. It wasn't enough for (Pentagon chief) 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," Kelly said in his own statement on X.

Deluzio also said on X he "will not be intimidated for a single second by the Trump Administration or Justice Department lawyers who tried and failed to indict me today." 

Representative Crow expressed similar sentiments. 

The video from the Democratic lawmakers came during criticism of Trump's decisions to deploy the National Guard in U.S. cities and authorize lethal strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs from Latin America.

Trump has faced criticism from rights experts over what they categorize as his administration's targeting of political opponents and deployment of federal agents and National Guard troops in cities governed by Democrats. Trump's attempts have faced legal challenges and street protests.

 (Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Christian Schmollinger // REUTERS)