In the video posted to social media in November, members of Congress called on the military to “refuse illegal orders” and featured Arizona’s Mark Kelly, Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin, Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.
BREAKING !
The Trump DOJ failed to get a grand jury indictment for the law makers who recorded a video telling the military not to obey illegal orders.
What a loser Trump is!
Oh, and don’t follow illegal orders! pic.twitter.com/ACjYpZFll7
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 11, 2026
In a statement posted to her Instagram account, Slotkin reiterated that the 90-second video “simply quoted the law”, adding “hopefully, this ends this politicised investigation for good”.
The post noted that it’s “exceedingly rare” for federal prosecutors to strike out in a grand jury proceeding because they “need to convince only a majority of grand jurors that there is a probably cause that a crime was committed — a relatively low threshold”.
The elected officials — who have all served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies — never specified which orders to refuse, but Trump has leaned heavily on use of the military in his second term, domestically and abroad.
In the United States, the 79-year-old Republican has ordered the National Guard into US cities to back his immigration crackdown, over the protest of local leaders in many cases.
The president has also ordered strikes abroad, including attacks on Nigeria, Iran and a series of lethal hits on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed at least 130 people, and which experts say are illegal.
After the video was circulated on social media, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “THE TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW,” later calling it “SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL.”
In another post, Trump said the behavior was “punishable by DEATH!”
In addition to the Justice Department’s attempt to land an indictment, the Pentagon said in November 2025 that it was considering a court-martial against Kelly, a former astronaut, in an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration’s response.
Later that month, Democratic lawmakers accused Trump of using the FBI to “intimidate” members of congress and said the law enforcement agency had requested interviews with them following their criticism of the president.
