Hegseth Revives Effort to Demote Mark Kelly for ‘Illegal Orders’ Video

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday breathed new life into his effort to demote Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain, and reduce his military retirement pay.

Hegseth asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to toss out a district court ruling that halted his efforts to punish Kelly for a social media video in which Kelly and five other Democrats, all veterans, informed service members that they are not required to follow illegal orders.

“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. 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,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote in the Feb. 12 ruling. “This Court will not be the first to do so!”

For months Hegseth has targeted Kelly and the other Democratic lawmakers for their participation in the video. The other participants were Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio.

After their video was released, both Hegseth and Trump called it “sedition.”

Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro attempted to indict the lawmakers involved in the video, but failed to earn the support of a single member of the grand jury.

In a video posted to X in January, Crow said Trump “picked the wrong people” to try to intimidate.

“He’s using his cronies in the Department of Justice to continue to threaten and intimidate us,” Crow said. “But he’s picked the wrong people. We took an oath to the Constitution, a lifetime oath when we joined the military and again as members of Congress. We are not going to back away.”