Jeanine Pirro’s Failure To Indict Six ‘Seditious’ Democrats Exposes Growing Problem for Trump — Hostile Grand Juries in Blue Cities

The rejection by a Washington, D.C. grand jury of criminal charges against six Democratic lawmakers — who recorded a video urging service members to disobey “illegal orders” — puts into sharp relief a growing problem faced by the Trump Administration. The 47th president’s legal agenda is increasingly being frustrated by judicial entities usually taken to be rubber stamps for prosecutors. Any grand jury that declines to indict is a rare one, as studies show that some 99 percent of such bodies return charges when petitioned by prosecutors. The failure to charge is a setback for Attorney General Pam Bondi and the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, the former Fox News star Jeanine Pirro. It illustrates the challenge the Department of Justice faces in Democratic areas. Mr. Trump garnered less than 10 percent of the 2024 vote in the nation’s capital. A grand jury in November refused to approve a felony charge against a man who threw a Subway sandwich at an ICE agent. The six Democratic lawmakers — Congressmen Jason Crow and Chris Deluzio, Congresswomen Chrissy Houlahan and Maggie Goodlander, and Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin — who served in either the military or intelligence services, participated in a video published last November which told military service members that it was compulsory for them to refuse “illegal orders.” While the lawmakers did not articulate what these orders were, the implication was clearly that military officers should refuse to carry out the kinds of commands from President Trump or Secretary Pete Hegseth that Democrats have criticized as illegal. These actions have included the assassination of a top Iranian general during Mr. Trump’s first term and in his second term, his targeting of small boats accused of ferrying drugs from Latin America to the United States. The Democrats’ definition of “illegal orders” has included sending the National Guard into blue cities for crime and immigration enforcement. The video enraged Mr. Trump, who accused the lawmakers in the video of “sedition” and pointed out that sedition — in certain circumstances — can be “punishably by DEATH.” While he did not call for seeking the death penalty for the six lawmakers, some of them have claimed in media appearances that Mr. Trump wants to have them executed.Ms. Slotkin took to X following the news that the grand jury refused to indict her and her colleagues to declare that “No matter what President Trump and Pirro continue to do with this case, tonight we can score one for the Constitution, our freedom of speech, and the rule of law.” In recent days, Ms. Slotkin also released a video where she declared she was refusing to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation into the video. The DOJ has not yet commented on the failure to indict the lawmakers. In the 90-second video, the lawmakers stated, clearly referring to Mr. Trump, that “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home.” They added that “No one has to carry out orders that violate the law, or our Constitution” and “Know that we have your back… don’t give up the ship.”The Uniform Code of Military Justice mandates that servicemembers are required to follow only lawful orders. Meaning that the “Nuremberg defense,” so named after the arguments mounted by Hitler’s commanders in the aftermath of the Second World War that they were only obeying orders when they carried out war crimes, don’t hold water in American law. The video precipitated immediate pushback from Republicans, with Senator Marsha Blackburn declaring that “It is inconceivable that you would have elected officials that are saying to uniformed members of the military who have taken an oath that they would defy the orders that they have been given to execute their mission.” Mr. Hegseth calls the lawmakers the “Seditious Six” and described the video as “despicable, reckless, and false” and ventured that “Their foolish screed sows doubt and confusion — which only puts our warriors in danger.” Mr. Trump shared a post on Truth Social from another user that asserted “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!” Mr. Hegseth has focused his wrath on Mr. Kelly, who is the only member of the six Democrats who is a retired military officer and is therefore bound to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Mr. Hegseth has taken steps to censure Mr. Kelly and demote him from his rank at retirement — captain — to a lower rank, which would reduce his military pension.Prosecutors can always convene a second grand jury, though that tactic failed in the prosecution of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. The charges against her for bank and mortgage fraud were dismissed after the prosecutor in charge, Lindsey Halligan, was disqualified from the Eastern District of Virginia following a ruling that she was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi. That also torpedoed the case, for lying to Congress, against the former director of the FBI, James Comey. The DOJ convened two more grand juries to indict Ms. James, but both of them declined to indict her. The DOJ abjured that strategy in respect of Mr. Comey, likely because the statute of limitations on his alleged perjury to Congress expired days after charges were filed. It is unclear whether charges could be refiled, though the DOJ is likely to argue that a dismissal does not preclude a second effort to indict.The administration has struggled to indict in other ways as well. A magistrate judge — a low level jurist tasked with routine tasks — rejected federal prosecutors’ effort to induct the fired CNN host Don Lemon following a protest against ICE that disrupted a Minneapolis church service. The administration, though, eventually charged him with conspiracy to deprive the congregants of the church of their rights and to interfere with religious freedom in a house of worship. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution ordains that “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.” Any effort to prosecute lawmakers would likely be immediately contested via invocation of the Speech or Debate Clause, which mandates that lawmakers “shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”That protection is absolute — but only as long as a defendant can show that the activity in question is related to legislative work. Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, recently failed to show that her arrest and indictment — for felony assault and other crimes — was protected by that privilege. She is appealing that ruling.

Jeanine Pirro’s Failure To Indict Six ‘Seditious’ Democrats Exposes Growing Problem for Trump — Hostile Grand Juries in Blue Cities

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