A federal judge on Thursday shut down Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts to punish Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly over his urging of US service members to refuse illegal orders, ruling that the Pentagon chief’s actions were unconstitutionally retaliatory.
The decision landed two days after a grand jury in Washington, DC, declined to approve charges sought by federal prosecutors against the Arizona senator and several other Democratic lawmakers who taped a video last year warning that “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home,” and repeatedly implored service members and the intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”
Together, the grand jury declination and ruling from senior US District Judge Richard Leon represent major impediments to efforts by aides of Donald Trump to use the levers of government to punish Kelly, a retired Navy captain and former astronaut, over his participation in the video.
Hey judge, did you know you are one of the only people that can hold him accountable for having done something “unlawfully,” as you described?
I don’t know about that. I was kind of hoping this would make it to a military tribunal.
Now, I was never in the military and don’t have my inside knowledge of how it all works like some of you do. But if they claim to have the authority to recall a sitting congressman to active duty and demote him, can’t the tribunal do the same thing to the SecDef? If I were writing the script, I would have the tribunal haul Major Hegseth in and give him the lecture on illegal orders that he obviously missed while in the Army National Guard.
Maybe, but not at the same time as he’s deciding the first case. With thus judge’s opinion, Kelly can file a civil suit to bilk and embarrass Drinky Pete but only the corrupt DoJ can bring criminal charges (or military, but I dunno how that works).