House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the six Democrats who participated in a video urging service members to disobey illegal orders last fall “should be indicted,” even as a grand jury on Tuesday refused to do so.
“I think that anytime you’re obstructing law enforcement and getting in the way of these sensitive operations, it’s a very serious thing, and it probably is a crime. And, yeah, they probably should be indicted,” Johnson told reporters shortly after the grand jury news.
Prosecutors launched a probe into six Democrats — Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) and Chris Deluzio (Pa.) — after they released a joint video statement in November calling on military service members and intelligence community personnel to defy “illegal orders.” All six have military or intelligence backgrounds.
The video followed the Trump administration’s decision to carry out deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean.
President Trump swiftly called for the six members to be “hanged” in response to their video, before eventually walking it back.
The Justice Department’s legal effort against the six has been lambasted by Democrats and some Republicans who see the move as politically motivated, and on Tuesday a grand jury blocked the indictment. Prosecutors failed to meet a low bar of “probable cause” to convince a majority of the grand jury to secure an indictment.
Separately, the Pentagon is looking to censure Kelly, a retired Navy captain, and lower his retirement rank, a move that could affect his military pension.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Kelly said Johnson should “go back to his office and seriously think about what he says publicly,” in response to the Speaker’s comments.
“He’s the Speaker of the House of Representatives. He’s one of the most powerful people in this country. And if he’s going to side at every moment with this administration when they are clearly not on the side of the Constitution, I think he’s got to really evaluate why he is there and who he is really serving,” Kelly said.
Slotkin, who spoke alongside Kelly, said Johnson “should take a beat and remember why he’s there and that our Founding Fathers designed this as a separate branch of government to provide checks and balances on the president, not salute like a good boy and do what he says every single time.”
Kelly also warned that the Justice Department’s attempt to indict the six lawmakers represents a “master alarm flashing for our democracy.”
He also called the failed federal indictment pursued by the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro as one “straight from the authoritarian playbook.”