Washington: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has requested interviews with six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video telling US military personnel they must refuse unlawful orders, a media report said on Tuesday.
The move is set to escalate a widening clash between the Trump administration and members of Congress over civilian control of the armed forces.
The lawmakers — Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, and Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan — released the video last week as Democrats voiced concerns that the administration was pressuring the military to carry out actions they believe may violate federal law.
On Tuesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth sharpened his criticism of the video, calling it a “politically motivated influence operation” that risked undermining military discipline.
In a post on X, he said the message “may seem harmless to civilians — but it carries a different weight inside the military,” arguing that the lawmakers reframed military obedience “around partisan distrust instead of established legal processes.”
Hegseth also said the lawmakers’ failure to cite a specific illegal order “created ambiguity rather than clarity” and described the video’s language as “carefully scripted” to appear legally authoritative.
The Pentagon has warned that Kelly, a retired Navy captain, could be recalled to active duty to face charges under the US Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Slotkin, a former CIA officer, and four of the other lawmakers previously served in the military but are not retired, and therefore are not subject to the UCMJ.
Kelly dismissed the Pentagon’s threat as intimidation.
“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution,” he said in a post on X on Monday.
The video emerged amid rising tension over the Trump administration’s directives authorising strikes on vessels in international waters suspected of transporting drug traffickers. Democrats have questioned the legality of those operations, while the Pentagon has defended them because the targeted smugglers qualify as terrorists.
US President Donald Trump has condemned the six lawmakers, posting earlier on his Truth Social platform that they should be arrested and prosecuted for “seditious behaviour” and adding, “punishable by DEATH!”
The administration has also faced criticism over its deployment of National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities, a decision Democratic leaders say reflects a broader pattern of politicising the military.
(IANS)
