The Trump administration has officially launched a military investigation into Arizona Senator Mark Kelly after he appeared in a video telling U.S. service members they had the right to "refuse illegal orders".
In a statement to The Independent on Monday evening, the Pentagon said it was "escalating" its preliminary review of Kelly's behavior into a full command investigation over "serious allegations of misconduct".
"Further official comments will be limited to preserve the integrity of the proceedings," the statement said.
A command investigation is a formal legal process used to find out whether there has been a breach of military law potentially as a prelude to disciplinary measures.
The move comes after weeks of fury from President Donald Trump over Kelly's appearance alongside other Democratic members of Congress in a social media video reminding U.S. troops they can refuse orders if they believe those orders violate their oaths to the Constitution.
"Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???" Trump raged on his social network Truth Social after the video was initially released. He then reposted another user who encouraged him to "HANG THEM."
In a defiant message posted to X on Monday, Kelly shot back: "It wasn't enough for Donald Trump to say I should be hanged, which prompted death threats against me and my family.
"It wasn't enough for [defense secretary] Pete Hegseth to announce a sham investigation on social media.
"Now they are threatening everything I fought for and served for over 25 years in the U.S. Navy, all because I repeated something every service member is taught.
"It should send a shiver down the spine of every patriotic American that this President and Secretary of Defense would so corruptly abuse their power to come after me or anyone this way.
"The United States has the most professional military in the world. What I don't trust is Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth, who have already shown they will stop at nothing and corrupt any process to make an example out of me."
He got some rhetorical backup from Arizona congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, who posted: "If the Trump regime is willing to go this far to silence @SenMarkKelly, imagine how they’d treat everyday service members who may speak truth to power."
Kelly, a former astronaut and decorated fighter pilot, is bound by laws governing ex-servicemen, which "prohibit actions intended to interfere with the loyalty, morale or good order and discipline of the armed forces."
In the video, Kelly and five other ex-military or ex-intelligence lawmakers spoke directly to current service members, saying: "Our laws are clear: you can refuse illegal orders... you must refuse illegal orders."
It comes amid intense legal and political controversy over the legality of the Trump administration's airstrikes on supposed "drug boats" in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.
Last month, one of the six Democrats — former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin — said she and her comrades had received notes from the FBI's counter-terrorism division requesting to interview them.
The Pentagon said it was conducting a "thorough review" of whether Kelly’s remarks amounted to "misconduct". Launching a command investigation goes further, allowing investigators to begin actively probing his behavior.
But experts in military law have cast doubt on the idea that Kelly's words violated any parts of the U.S. military code.
Kelly's lawyer has said there is "no legitimate basis for any type of proceeding against him", and that any such effort would be "an extraordinary abuse of power".
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