Pentagon moves to punish Democratic Senator Mark Kelly over ‘seditious video’
The Pentagon announced it was taking steps to demote Democratic senator and former Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, with a reduction in his pension, following a video the department called “seditious.”
“Senator Mark Kelly – and five other members of Congress – released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X.
The Arizona senator was one of six Democratic lawmakers who released a video calling on the military to refuse illegal orders, following U.S. strikes on suspected drug smuggling boats.
Kelly, a former Navy pilot and astronaut, called Hegseth’s action “outrageous” and “un-American.”
He has 30 days to submit a formal response to the Pentagon’s notification, according to Hegseth’s tweet Monday morning.
“As a retired Navy captain who still receives a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the War Department – and the American people – expect justice,” Hegseth wrote in his statement on X.
Hegseth said the department had initiated a retirement level determination process, where a reduction in Kelly’s retirement level would result in a reduction in retirement pay.
“If Pete Hegseth, the least qualified Secretary of Defense in our nation’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with censorship or threats to demote me or sue me, he still doesn’t get it,” Kelly wrote on X on Monday.
“I will fight this with everything I have – not for myself, but to send the message that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump cannot decide what Americans in this country have to say about their government.”
The controversy stems from a video released last November in which Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers who also served in the military or intelligence services told U.S. service members that they “can refuse illegal orders.”
It was released amid growing questions of legality over U.S. strikes on suspected narcotics-trafficking boats off the coast of South America.
Kelly says in the video: “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”
“Like us, you all took an oath to protect and defend this constitution. Currently, the threats to our constitution come not only from abroad but from here at home.”
Trump responded to the video in a series of posts on Truth Social, accusing the lawmakers of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL.”
Shortly afterward, the Trump administration announced it was opening a review of Kelly’s conduct under military law.
Kelly, a highly decorated retired Navy captain who served for more than two decades and deployed several times, then responded by saying, “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it’s not going to work.” »
Experts say that even though Kelly has retired from the military, he is still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) — a federal law passed by Congress in 1951 that subjects members of the military to a set of special rules.
But legal analysts have questioned the Pentagon’s authority to punish a member of Congress for political speech, even though the department maintains that retired officers remain subject to certain aspects.
