In mid-December, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “escalating” his crusade against Sen. Mark Kelly, launching an “official Command Investigation” into the Arizona Democrat. It was, as The Washington Post noted soon after, “an unprecedented use of the military justice system to investigate a political adversary.”
Last week, the abuse became even more serious: The beleaguered Pentagon chief issued a “letter of censure” to the decorated Navy veteran, calling it a first step toward a demotion and a decrease in pension.
Seven days later, Kelly pushed back in court, filing a lawsuit against Hegseth, arguing that the Cabinet secretary’s crusade violates the senator’s First Amendment rights and the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution, which protects lawmakers from prosecution for official acts.
A day later, the defense secretary publicly taunted the Arizonan, publishing an item to social media in which Hegseth called Kelly “cranky,” and adding, “‘Captain’ Kelly knows exactly what he did, and that he will be held to account.”
In reality, however, Kelly didn’t do anything wrong. Several Democratic military and intelligence veterans appeared in a video, released in November, in which they urged service members to reject illegal orders. This sparked apoplexy within the Trump administration, as if it were somehow outrageous to remind service members to follow the law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice — as Hegseth himself did before he joined Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
But as it turns out, Kelly isn’t the only target of the crusade. The New York Times reported:
Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan says she has learned that federal prosecutors are investigating her after she took part in a video urging military service members to resist illegal orders.
Ms. Slotkin, a Democrat, said in an interview on Monday that she found out about the inquiry from the office of Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a longtime ally of President Trump’s. In an email sent to the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms, Ms. Pirro’s office requested an interview with the senator or her private counsel.
Ms. Slotkin, a former CIA officer who served three tours in Iraq, told the Times that she sees the investigation as an effort by an authoritarian president to weaponize the federal government and intimidate her into silence. “Facts matter little, but the threat matters quite a bit,” the Michigan Democrat said. “The threat of legal action; the threat to your family; the threat to your staff; the threat to you.”
For now, it’s not at all clear what kind of allegations Trump’s Justice Department might be pursuing, since there’s nothing illegal or improper about officials telling service members to follow the law. The brazen weaponization of the federal levers of power, however, is unmistakable. “[I]t’s not just about me and my family,” Slotkin added in her comments to the Times. “It’s what happens when the commander in chief takes the arms of the government and turns them against basic free speech and against his own people. And it’s not going to stop with me.” This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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