Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bid to censure Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a retired Navy captain, for encouraging service members to resist unlawful orders is nothing more than “punitive retribution,” according to a lawsuit filed by Kelly on Monday.
In November, Kelly and a handful of other lawmakers appeared in a short video shared on social media that urged U.S. service members and members of intelligence agencies to uphold their oaths to the Constitution in the face of “enormous stress and pressure.” The lawmakers also encouraged them to defy any “illegal orders” as part of that oath.
The backlash was swift, with President Donald Trump calling the video seditious and suggesting its recommendations were “punishable by death.” Hegseth issued a letter to censure Kelly last week, saying the “reckless and seditious video” was “clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline.”
“This conduct was seditious in nature and violated Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to which Captain Kelly remains subject as a retired officer receiving pay,” Hegseth declared.
In a statement Monday, Kelly said the self-proclaimed “Secretary of War” is “coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him — and this or any administration — accountable.”
