Seditious Six Video Violates Military Oaths, Legal Analysts Condemn

The “Seditious Six” lawmakers urged U.S. service members to ignore “illegal” orders from President Donald Trump in a video posted on social media, former U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Joe diGenova and former senior Justice Department official Victoria Toensing said Tuesday. The legal analysts criticized the video titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” which featured Democrat Sens. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona and Democrat Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Jason Crow of Colorado. diGenova said the six lawmakers, all of whom previously served in the military or intelligence services, misled viewers by suggesting they could tell active-duty troops to reject presidential directives and called their message a direct challenge to the military chain of command. Kelly stands alone among the group in facing potential military consequences. “Kelly is a retired officer, so therefore, he’s legally in a different position,” he said. According to diGenova, Kelly’s retired status subjects him to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, meaning the Arizona Democrat “can be called back to active duty merely for the sake of a court-martial.” However, diGenova stressed that the other five members cannot be prosecuted under the UCMJ. “They can’t be prosecuted like Kelly theoretically can, because they’re … no longer reservists,” he said. Even so, he urged Congress to take the matter seriously and hold its own members accountable for their controversial conduct. “I’d like to see some action taken by the individual body against them, like a censure motion,” he said. diGenova added that voters in the lawmakers’ home districts should also consider the impact of their action. “As far as I’m concerned, I would hope that their constituents would not like their behavior,” he said. But diGenova also acknowledged that the current political polarization may spare them from repercussions. “But from the districts they come from, their constituents may be very pleased with this childish, juvenile behavior,” he said. Toensing argued that the lawmakers went too far with their video appeal to military members. “It was said earlier in the show: It’s specifically against the law,” she said of their appeal to disregard orders from the Trump administration. Simply reminding troops to disobey unlawful commands would have been unnecessary, she said. “If they had just say, ‘Don’t obey an illegal order,’ that would have been dumb, because it would have been redundant to all the teachings that go on when you’re in the military and intelligence communities,” she said. But they didn’t stop at that, and, in fact, it was Kelly who said, “Their administration … is pitting the military against U.S. citizens,” she said. Toensing also dismissed attempts by some to link the video to the Trump administration’s strikes against alleged drug smuggling vessels. “That is outrageous, and it has nothing to do with what’s going on in the Caribbean, as that one member of Congress tried to say,” she said.