U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, have raised concerns over what they describe as the FBI’s use of investigation threats against six Democratic members of Congress. The lawmakers in question—Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, and Representatives Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, and Chrissy Houlahan—recently released a video advising active-duty military personnel to follow only lawful orders.
In a letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, the Senators wrote: “We write with grave concern that the Trump Administration is weaponizing the FBI against federal lawmakers who merely restated current law. This abuse of federal law enforcement authority as an instrument of retribution against the President’s political opponents is a threat to the constitutional freedoms of all Americans.”
The Senators emphasized that their colleagues’ statements were consistent with established legal standards for military conduct: “As you know, the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires servicemembers to follow ‘lawful government order[s] or regulation[s],’ and the Manual for Courts-Martial explicitly states that the ‘inference [of lawfulness] does not apply to a patently illegal order.’ With regard to violations of the law of war, the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual also states that ‘each member of the armed services has a duty to refuse to comply with clearly illegal orders to commit violations of the law of war.’ Indeed, servicemembers may be prosecuted for carrying out a patently unlawful order to commit a war crime. Nothing these Members of Congress said in this video is unlawful—they were simply restating existing law.”
The letter expressed concern about reports suggesting political pressure within the FBI: “Despite no predicate whatsoever, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) political leadership is reportedly pressuring the Washington Field Office to open a seditious conspiracy investigation into the six federal lawmakers for these lawful statements. This contradicts Director Patel’s public promise that the question of ‘is there a lawful predicate to open up an inquiry and investigation or is there not’ would be ‘made by the career agents and analysts here at the FBI.’ This is particularly alarming because President Trump himself has publicly claimed that the lawmakers’ lawful statements are ‘SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.’ The President also shared a different post that read: ‘HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD.’”
The Senators concluded their letter by criticizing what they see as unconstitutional actions from federal authorities: “It is facially unconstitutional to prosecute protected speech, whether that speech is by the American people or their representatives in Congress, and it is absurd to contend that statements reiterating the law alone are a predicate for a seditious conspiracy investigation. President Trump has repeatedly weaponized federal law enforcement against American citizens as part of his increasingly desperate attempts to distract from the lawlessness, corruption, and incompetence of his Administration. This country deserves federal law enforcement that uphold the law, not use the threat of prosecution to chill speech—particularly speech urging government officials and members of the Armed Forces to comply with the law. The Department of Justice’s resources would be better spent ensuring that the Department of Defense is following the law as it conducts military action.”
Other signatories on this letter include Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Cory Booker, Alex Padilla, Peter Welch, and Adam Schiff.
A PDF copy of their letter can be found here.
