The FBI wants to question the lawmakers who called on troops to refuse unlawful orders, including Chester County’s Chrissy Houlahan
The FBI requested interviews with the six Democrats who told troops to "refuse illegal orders" in a video Trump called seditious. U.S. Reps. Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio are part of that group.
The FBI is seeking interviews with the six Democratic members of Congress, including two from Pennsylvania, who released a video calling on members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”
A U.S. Justice Department official said the FBI has requested interviews with the six Democratic lawmakers, who are all veterans or members of the intelligence community.
The move came a day after the Pentagon threatened to recall Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), a Navy veteran and one of the six lawmakers, to active duty potentially to face military charges. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday described the video as “seditious” and “despicable, reckless, and false” after President Donald Trump went on a social media rant against the lawmakers last week.
U.S. Reps. Chrissy Houlahan of Chester County, an Air Force veteran, and Chris Deluzio of Allegheny County, a Navy vet, both took part in the video.
Houlahan said in a statement Tuesday that Trump “is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress.”
She said the FBI contacted the House and Senate sergeants at arms on Monday to request the interviews.
“No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution,” Houlahan said.
The lawmaker said that members of Congress took an oath to the Constitution that “lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it.”
“We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship,” she added.
The six members of Congress urged service members not to “give up the ship” in their video released last week, which drew fierce attacks from Trump. They did not refer to specific orders as illegal in the video, but some have cited military strikes against boats in the Caribbean that experts have questioned as well as Trump’s efforts to deploy the National Guard in U.S. cities.
In a string of posts last week on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump called the Democrats “traitors” who committed sedition “punishable by DEATH.” He reshared similarly aggressive posts from supporters, including one calling for the lawmakers to be hanged.
Houlahan and Deluzio both reported bomb threats at their district offices on Friday following the president’s attacks.
» READ MORE: Trump accuses Democratic vets in Congress of sedition ‘punishable by death,’ including two lawmakers from Pa.
The Department of Defense announced Monday that it “has received serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly, a retired Navy captain, and that “a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated.”
Kelly is subject to military rules while the other veterans who partook in the video are not because he retired from the military. That means he earns a pension and can be recalled to active duty.
His colleagues in the video did not serve long enough to qualify for retirement, so they are not subject to military laws, as he is.
This article contains information from Reuters.