Jan. 14 (UPI) — Sen. Elissa Slotkin said she is under federal investigation for a video in which she and five other Democratic members of Congress with uniformed service experience reminded active service members of their responsibility to refuse illegal orders.
The Michigan Democrat revealed the investigation in a recorded statement published to X on Wednesday, saying U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia asked to interview her last week because of the November video.
Slotkin described the probe as a continuation of President Donald Trump‘s tactics to intimidate her, other Democrats and critics into silence.
“To be clear, this is the president’s playbook,” she said. “Truth doesn’t matter. Facts don’t matter. And anyone who disagrees with him becomes an enemy and he then weaponizes the federal government against them.”
The video was published in November amid a military buildup near Venezuela and as the Trump administration was using the military to attack alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Pacific and Caribbean that drew allegations of extrajudicial killings and war crimes.
“You can refuse illegal orders,” Slotkin, a former CIA officer who served in Iraq, said in the video, restating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. She was a House representative then and had yet to take her Senate seat, which she did earlier this month.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Reps. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., also appeared in the video.
Trump swiftly rebuked the Democrats, calling them traitors and their behavior “SEDITIOUS … punishable by DEATH!!”
He called for them to be arrested and put on trial and reposted statements on Truth Social calling for them to be hanged.
The Pentagon swiftly launched an investigation into Kelly and is now seeking to reduce his retirement pay and demote his rank. Kelly responded on Monday by suing the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Trump, who campaigned on seeking retribution from his political opponents, has conducted campaigns targeting numerous politicians, critics and institutions, including law firms and universities, that have criticized or stood against him and his policies.
Criminal probes or referrals have been launched into New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully prosecuted Trump in Manhattan, former FBI Director James Comey, who was involved in the investigation into alleged ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign, and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a loud Trump critic.
Federal probes and investigations have also been launched into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who Trump has pressured to lower interest rates, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Through executive orders, he has punished law firms that have represented or employed his perceived political opponents. And he has called for investigations into many others, prompting accusations of weaponization of the federal government.
In her video Wednesday, Slotkin said that the Justice Department investigation is just the latest measure taken against her following Trump’s comments on the video.
She said she has received more than 1,000 threats, with more than a hundred considered credible and being investigated; a bomb threat was made at her house and her parents were swatted in the middle of the night.
“Now he’s using his political appointees at the FBI and the Department of Justice to follow through with his threats,” she said.
“It’s legal intimidation and physical intimidation meant to get you to shut up,” she continued. “He’s used it with our universities, our corporations, our legal community and with politicians who falsely believe that doing his bidding will keep them safe.”
She framed the alleged attacks as infringements on free speech and the core values of the United States.
Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., threw her support behind Slotkin on Wednesday, calling her a “patriot” who is dedicated to serving her country.
“I strongly condemn the Trump administration’s weaponization of the Justice Department to intimidate Senator Slotkin for doing exactly what her oath of office requires: defending the Constitution and the rule of law,” she said on X.
“Reminding service members that they have a duty to refuse illegal orders is not sedition. It is a safeguard of democracy.”
