Rep. Crow signals legal action after administration's effort to indict 6 Democrats
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Amna Nawaz:
A federal grand jury put a halt, at least temporarily, into the Trump administration's efforts to prosecute Democratic lawmakers under an anti-insubordination law.
In November, six lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds published a message urging members of their former communities to disobey illegal orders. Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin of Arizona and Michigan respectively, as well as Representatives Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania's Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan each took part in the video.
The Trump administration reportedly sought to indict all six of them.
Joining us now is one of those members. That's former Army Ranger Representative Jason Crow of Colorado.
Congressman, welcome back to the "News Hour." Thanks for being with us.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO):
Thank you.
Amna Nawaz:
I want to put to you the response we heard today from House Speaker Mike Johnson in reaction to the DOJ's failure to indict. Here's what he told reporters.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):
Any time you're obstructing law enforcement and getting into the way of these sensitive operations, it's a very serious thing and it probably is a crime. And, yes, they probably should be indicted.
Amna Nawaz:
What's your response to the leader of your chamber?
Rep. Jason Crow:
Well, it's too bad that Speaker Johnson continues to prostrate himself and sell his soul to Donald Trump.
But let's be really clear. The man has never served a day in his life in uniform. I went three times to war for this country in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was a paratrooper and I was an Army Ranger. From my first day of boot camp, we were taught about the law of war. We were taught about the Constitution.
Before we ever deployed, I sat my men down, my soldiers, my paratroopers, and I taught them about their obligations under the law and the Constitution. This is ingrained in service.
Amna Nawaz:
So your attorney, Abbe Lowell, is now asking the U.S. attorney and D.C., Jeanine Pirro, who is seeking these indictments, to preserve all evidence, all documents, all materials related to this case.
Why is that? Are you going to seek some legal recourse here?
Rep. Jason Crow:
Yes, why that is because I'm unwilling to sit back and let political goons in the administration and the Department of Justice lob grenade after grenade my way and just keep my head down.
They threatened us. They tried to bully and intimidate us. They failed. They will always fail. And if they think they're going to get us the back down, they have another think coming. So what I'm trying to make very clear to them, they tried to send a message to us. They failed.
So I have a message now for them. There's going to be cost to this. There's going to be accountability for this. If you have turned your back on the Constitution, if you are abusing your government position, your position of public trust, if you are abusing process, then we will seek accountability for as long as it takes.
Amna Nawaz:
What does that cost or accountability look like? Are you going to sue the administration, take some other action in Congress?
Rep. Jason Crow:
Well, I'm not going to get into legal strategy, but some of that's up to Donald Trump and the administration. If they want to continue to abuse the process and weaponize America's justice system against political opponents and against Congress, then, yes, there will be recourse, and we're not going to just sit back and take it.
So the ball's kind of in their core. They have a decision to make.
Amna Nawaz:
As you know, all this evidence went before a grand jury that declined to bring charges here. You have heard the saying, I'm sure, that a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich because of that lower legal standard in a grand jury as opposed to a criminal trial.
The fact that this group of Americans declined to charge anyone, the fact that we have now had two different grand juries refuse to reindict Letitia James, another political enemy of the president, does all of this say to you that the system, at least this piece of the system, is working?
Rep. Jason Crow:
Yes, that's exactly the message here, is the founders of our Constitution knew that this could happen, knew that exactly the scenario that played out yesterday could play out, that you would have a runaway, rogue, lawless administration that would abuse the system.
The system is working. And this is actually failing. This is blowing back. Let's be really clear here that they thought they were going to chill dissent. They thought that they were going to intimidate and bully Americans, because the message was not to us. They came after us to send a message to America that, if you dare step out of line, that we will come for you and the cost will be too high.
But, instead, what happened is they awakened the courage, the tenacity, and the resilience of the American people, just like what happened in Minneapolis. Every time they abuse process, they murder Americans, they come after political opponents, the tide continues to turn more in favor of democracy.
Amna Nawaz:
At the same time, are you at all worried the federal prosecutors could seek an indictment through some other means?
Rep. Jason Crow:
They might. They might try.
I mean, God knows they have tried in repeated cases before, but we will be ready, right? Listen, nothing that they're going to do here to come after me and to come after folks in my position is going to get me to back down from my job.
Amna Nawaz:
So let me revisit that original message you and others posted urging military members to remember their oath, to disobey illegal orders. Do you yourself now believe that President Trump is issuing and that military and intelligence officers are executing illegal or unlawful orders?
Rep. Jason Crow:
I think Donald Trump has violated the law by sending our military to do things without congressional authorization. I think they violated the law with several strikes in the Caribbean.
We know they violated the law by sending the National Guard into several states because courts have struck those deployments down. He threatened to send troops to polling stations, which is a violation of U.S. criminal law. He threatened to shoot protesters in Lafayette Square in his first administration.
He has threatened to kill the family members and children of terrorists, which would be a violation of the law of war and would be murder under U.S. law. So if he carries out any of those threats and puts our service members in that position, what we wanted to do is remind them that the American people will have their back, that Congress will have their back, and that their Constitution and, again, the rule of law is their North Star.
Amna Nawaz:
As you're speaking directly to those service members now, they just saw the DOJ try to charge sitting lawmakers, right, for delivering this message about disobeying unlawful orders. Why should they believe that the system will protect them if they come forward or disobey those orders?
Rep. Jason Crow:
Well, we're going to have their back, for one.
The tide is turning and Americans are stepping up. They have had enough of the corruption. They have had enough of Donald Trump and his family lining their pockets at their expense. They have had enough of the military adventurism.
You know, Donald Trump bombed seven countries in his first year. They have had enough of that. And I have had enough of that. And they want something new and different. And they're stepping up. So, yes, I have amazing faith in the American people to join with us to retake their democracy.
Amna Nawaz:
That is Congressman Jason Crow, Democrat from Colorado, joining us tonight.
Congressman, thank you. It's good to speak with you.
Rep. Jason Crow:
Thank you
Feb. 10, 2026
Federal prosecutors in Washington sought and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, four people familiar with the matter said.
It was remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump’s — authorized prosecutors to go into a grand jury and ask for an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies.
But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump’s bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecution.
The move to charge the lawmakers — among them, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan — was, by any measure, an extraordinary attempt by Trump appointees to politicize the criminal justice system even for a Justice Department that has repeatedly shattered norms of independence from the White House and followed Mr. Trump’s directives to prosecute his adversaries.
But manipulating bureaucratic levers is not the same thing as controlling the entire criminal justice system.
Before Mr. Trump’s second term, it had been exceedingly rare for grand jurors to rebuff requests by prosecutors seeking indictments. It is now happening with increased frequency, as Mr. Trump’s appointees push ahead with questionable cases in an effort to appease him.
On Tuesday, prosecutors presenting the case sought to persuade the grand jurors that the lawmakers had violated a statute that forbids interfering with the loyalty, morale or discipline of the U.S. armed forces, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
They sought to bring charges against Mr. Kelly, Ms. Slotkin and their four colleagues in the House: Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger; Maggie Goodlander, a former Navy reservist; Chrissy Houlahan, a former Air Force officer; and Chris Deluzio, a Navy veteran.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Ms. Slotkin welcomed the outcome. “No matter what President Trump and Pirro continue to do with this case, tonight we can score one for the Constitution, our freedom of speech, and the rule of law,” she said in a statement.
Mr. Kelly denounced the administration’s repeated efforts to target him and his colleagues.
“This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackeys,” he said in a statement. “Donald Trump wants every American to be too scared to speak out against him. The most patriotic thing any of us can do is not back down.”
Time and again, the Justice Department under Mr. Trump has brought questionable criminal cases against foes of the president — among them, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and Letitia James, New York’s attorney general.
Even though many of these cases have been weak, the department has apparently determined that it may be better to fail in court rather than push back against Mr. Trump’s well-known desire for revenge.
The president, emboldened by his success in bending the Justice Department and F.B.I. to his will, has intensified his effort to deploy the vast arsenal of federal law enforcement to pursue his political agenda and personal grievances.
The department recently opened investigations into Democratic officials in Minnesota who opposed his immigration crackdown, and arrested the journalist Don Lemon over his presence at a church protest in Minneapolis. Last week, the F.B.I. searched an elections office in the Atlanta area based on debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In November, Ms. Pirro, a longtime Trump ally, approved a criminal investigation into Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chairman, whom Mr. Trump has long sought to supplant.
The case against the lawmakers was prompted by an online video organized by Ms. Slotkin, a former C.I.A. analyst who served multiple tours in Iraq. It did not mention any specific order or military scenario. But it was released as Mr. Trump was authorizing strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and considered deploying active-duty military troops to American cities to quell protests.
The lawmakers took turns reading a statement in which they cautioned that the “threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.”
“Our laws are clear,” said Mr. Kelly, a Navy veteran and former astronaut. “You can refuse illegal orders.”
Almost immediately, the video drew the ire of Mr. Trump, who demanded that the lawmakers be punished and even suggested that they should be executed.
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site. He shared another person’s post that said, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”
Days later, the six lawmakers disclosed that the F.B.I. had contacted the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms requesting interviews with them, indicating that a criminal investigation was underway.
“President Trump is using the F.B.I. as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress,” the four House members who took part in the video said in a joint statement. “No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.”
Mr. Kelly is also facing a separate investigation by the Pentagon into what military officials described as “serious allegations of misconduct.”
In a social media post in November, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the video was “despicable, reckless, and false,” and he asserted that the lawmakers, whom he disparaged as the “Seditious Six,” were encouraging troops to “ignore the orders of their Commanders.”
“Their foolish screed sows doubt and confusion — which only puts our warriors in danger,” Mr. Hegseth wrote.
Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice for The Times and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.
Michael S. Schmidt is an investigative reporter for The Times covering Washington. His work focuses on tracking and explaining high-profile federal investigations.
