In legal circles, it’s known as “no bill.” That’s the label used to describe what happens when prosecutors go to a grand jury to secure an indictment and jury members reject the effort.
If it seems as if the phrase has been coming up more frequently in recent months, it’s not your imagination. Donald Trump’s Justice Department has run into “no bill” setbacks repeatedly of late, in cases ranging from former FBI Director James Comey to New York Attorney General Letitia James to Sean Dunn (better known as the “sandwich guy”).
The latest example, however, is arguably the most dramatic: MS NOW reported that a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has declined to indict at least two Democratic senators — Arizona’s Mark Kelly and Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin — on charges of seditious conspiracy.
The effort didn’t come out of nowhere. In November, after several Democratic military and intelligence veterans urged service members to reject illegal orders, the White House began a furious pushback campaign that was extreme even by contemporary standards. Trump helped lead the charge, insisting that the Democratic lawmakers, who had done nothing wrong, had engaged in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Around the same time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth launched a crusade against Kelly, who was in a unique position: The decorated Navy veteran retired as a captain and was the only member of the group who had served long enough to receive a military pension.
If the Republican administration was going to target the other Democratic members, it needed to rely on an increasingly weaponized Justice Department.
That’s precisely what happened. As The New York Times summarized:
It was remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump’s — authorized prosecutors to go into a grand jury and ask for an indictment. … But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump’s bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecution.
That’s certainly correct, though I’d add that it’s also remarkable to note the crime that Trump’s DOJ accused the Democratic lawmakers of committing: Seditious conspiracy is a serious felony charge that’s rarely pursued. The idea that members of Congress crossed that line, and effectively conspired to undermine the authority of the government by reminding service members to follow the law and reject illegal orders, is insane.
But as the dust settles on this failed effort, and the political world ponders the possibility that the cause of justice is in the hands of regular people who are standing up for the rule of law against a radicalized executive branch, the backlash on Capitol Hill is just getting started.
Politico reported that congressional Democrats “are raging at what they see as a clear authoritarian attempt to quell opposition.” Kelly, for example, said, “This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackeys.”
Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, a decorated Army veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, was even more candid. “If these f–––ers think that they’re going to intimidate us and threaten and bully me into silence, and they’re going to go after political opponents and get us to back down, they have another thing coming,” Crow said. “The tide is turning.”
As for the party’s leadership, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was also unreserved, declaring in a written statement: “The Grand Jury upheld and honored the Constitution, doing what Donald Trump and his corrupt Republican sycophants lack the character to do. The attempt to indict Members of Congress for exercising their constitutionally-protected First Amendment rights is another shameful example of the cancerous rot that engulfs the Trump administration.”
The New York Democrat concluded, “Donald Trump, Jeanine Pirro and the corrupt political hacks at the Department of Justice will not silence or intimidate us. Every attempt to weaponize the criminal justice system will only strengthen our resolve as we work to end the National nightmare that extreme MAGA Republicans are inflicting on the country. They will all be held accountable for their lawlessness.”
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
