U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has dropped the prosecution effort against six Democratic lawmakers who made controversial comments about members of the military.
The debate over the matter started when Democratic lawmakers participated in a video in which they urged service members not to comply with unlawful orders amid airstrikes against boats alleged to have been smuggling narcotics.
From NBC News:
Jeanine Pirro's office has decided to stop pursuing the case against six Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the military and intelligence communities in a social media video not to comply with unlawful orders, three people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Roughly two weeks ago, as first reported by NBC News, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., unanimously rejected an attempt by Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to indict lawmakers over the video, illustrating that grand jurors didn’t think the government had passed even the low legal threshold of probable cause required to bring an indictment.
While a potential case against the six lawmakers is now considered dead in Washington, that decision wouldn’t necessarily bar a federal prosecutor from trying to bring a case in a different federal court district, though there have been no public indications that will happen.
Legal experts and Democrats have criticized the unprecedented attempt to use the immense powers of the Justice Department to punish six members of Congress as a purely political attack on protected free speech and a sign that the guardrails that existed during the first Trump administration have been eroding.
Pirro’s office had tried to charge six Democratic lawmakers, all of whom have military or intelligence backgrounds: Sens. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona and Reps. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Jason Crow of Colorado and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania.
In a series of social media posts, President Donald Trump said the lawmakers were traitors who committed “SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL.”
🚨BREAKING🚨
— The Political HQ (@ThePoliticalHQ) February 23, 2026
Jeanine Pirro's office has decided to stop pursuing the case against six Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the military and intelligence communities in a social media video not to comply with unlawful orders.
Source: @NBCNews
The lawmakers recorded a 90-second video that was posted on social media last fall. They told service members they “must refuse illegal orders” and reminded the troops that they are not obligated to follow orders that violate the Constitution or Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The video went viral on social media. The lawmakers did not directly mention the airstrikes on boats in the video, but many linked it to the attacks, which many have debated since they began last year. The lawmakers stressed that they were trying to raise the alarm about Trump’s push for aggressive action against those smuggling drugs into the United States.
President Donald Trump and his allies criticized the lawmakers, saying they had gone too far by telling troops to reject certain orders. The president referred to their comments as “seditious” and suggested they be “arrested and put on trial.” A federal grand jury later refused to indict them, which appears to be prompting Pirro’s decision to drop the case.