In mid-December, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “escalating” his crusade against Sen. Mark Kelly, launching an “official Command Investigation” into the Arizona Democrat. It was, as The Washington Post noted soon after, an “unprecedented use of the military justice system to investigate a political adversary.”
A month later, the abuse became even more serious: The beleaguered Pentagon chief issued a “letter of censure” to the decorated Navy veteran, calling it a first step toward a demotion and a decrease in pension.
Seven days later, Kelly pushed back in court, filing a lawsuit against Hegseth, arguing that the Cabinet secretary’s crusade violates the senator’s First Amendment rights and the speech-and-debate clause of the Constitution, which protects lawmakers from prosecution for official acts.
The defense secretary soon publicly taunted the Arizonan, publishing an item to social media in which Hegseth called Kelly “cranky,” and adding: “‘Captain’ Kelly knows exactly what he did, and that he will be held to account.”
If the former Fox News host had his hopes up, he has reason to be disappointed. MS NOW reported:
A federal judge temporarily blocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday from censuring Sen. Mark Kelly or reducing his military pension over a video reminding troops to ‘refuse illegal orders.’
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s preliminary injunction prevents Hegseth from taking those actions or reducing Kelly’s rank as a retired Navy captain.
“Secretary Hegseth relies on the well-established doctrine that military servicemembers enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protections given the fundamental obligation for obedience and discipline in the armed forces,” the George W. Bush-appointed jurist wrote in his 29-page opinion.
“Unfortunately for Secretary Hegseth, no court has ever extended those principles to retired servicemembers, much less a retired servicemember serving in Congress and exercising oversight responsibility over the military,” the judge added. “This Court will not be the first to do so!”
The judge went on to express concern about retired veterans’ civil liberties: “To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it!”
In theory, this should have brought this pointless crusade to a rapid end. In practice, however, Hegseth vowed to appeal his defeat. “Sedition is sedition, ‘Captain,’” the secretary wrote via social media.
For the record, the idea that Kelly committed “sedition” continues to be ridiculous. In fact, the Arizona Democrat didn’t do anything wrong at all: Several Democratic military and intelligence veterans appeared in a video, released in November, in which they urged service members to reject illegal orders.
This sparked apoplexy within the Trump administration, as if it were somehow outrageous to remind service members to follow the law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice — as Hegseth himself did before he joined Donald Trump’s Cabinet — but in the United States, touting the rule of law is not illegal.
Hegseth’s failure dovetails with one of his former Fox colleagues, Jeanine Pirro, who’s currently the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital, authorizing prosecutors this week to try to persuade a grand jury to indict Kelly and his congressional colleagues on charges of seditious conspiracy.
That didn’t go well: Regular citizens on the grand jury rejected the ridiculous gambit on Tuesday. In fact, MS NOW confirmed that literally zero members of the grand jury were inclined to go along with the partisan scheme.
The sooner Hegseth and the rest of the Trump administration move on from this fiasco, the better off everyone will be.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
