Just when you thought Washington couldn’t get more upside down, the so-called “Seditious Six” managed to dodge a grand jury indictment — and then promptly declared themselves martyrs for democracy.
On Tuesday, a D.C. grand jury declined to sign off on charges sought by the Department of Justice against six Democrat lawmakers who, back in November, released a video telling U.S. service members, “You must refuse illegal orders.” Rather than showing an ounce of restraint after narrowly escaping legal peril, the group immediately pivoted to blasting President Donald Trump and accusing the DOJ of being “weaponized.”
According to the Associated Press, “It wasn’t immediately clear whether prosecutors had sought indictments against all six lawmakers or what charge or charges prosecutors attempted to bring.” Even more eyebrow-raising, the AP described the repeated grand jury rejections in recent months as “extraordinarily unusual.”
The controversy traces back less than three months, when Democrat Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan joined Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan in releasing their now-infamous video. In it, they urged members of the armed forces to reject “illegal orders.”
Critics quickly dubbed them the “Seditious Six,” and President Trump himself called the stunt “seditious behavior.” The backlash wasn’t conjured out of thin air. Federal law prohibits “knowingly advising, counseling, or urging any member of the U.S. military to disobey, desert, or refuse lawful orders, with intent to interfere with military operations or loyalty.”
Yet after the grand jury declined to indict, the lawmakers went on offense.
Sen. Kelly, who has since filed a lawsuit against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over efforts to demote his military rank tied to the video, erupted on X: “This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackies.”
“It wasn’t enough for Pete Hegseth to censure me and threaten to demote me; now it appears they tried to have me charged with a crime — all because of something I said that they didn’t like,” Kelly wrote. “That’s not the way things work in America. Donald Trump wants every American to be too scared to speak out against him. The most patriotic thing any of us can do is not back down.”
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, echoed the same script — and aimed her fire at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
“Pirro did this at the direction of President Trump, who said repeatedly that I should be investigated, arrested, and hanged for sedition,” Slotkin wrote. “Hopefully, this ends this politicized investigation for good. But today wasn’t just an embarrassing day for the Administration. It was another sad day for our country. Because whether or not Pirro succeeded is not the point. It’s that President Trump continues to weaponize our justice system against his perceived enemies. It’s the kind of thing you see in a foreign country, not in the United States we know and love.”
Slotkin went on to celebrate the non-indictment as a victory “for the Constitution, our freedom of speech, and the rule of law.”
That’s one way to frame it.
In today’s Washington, Democrats can urge troops to defy orders, dodge an indictment in a friendly D.C. courtroom, and then claim persecution — all in the same news cycle.
Call it the swamp’s latest magic trick.
