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Pirro nixes case against 6 Dem lawmakers over ‘unlawful orders’ video, source says Court Battles | 2 minutes ago

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Pirro nixes case against 6 Dem lawmakers over ‘unlawful orders’ video, source says

(NewsNation) — The office of U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro is dropping the effort to bring charges against six members of Congress who appeared in a video suggesting service members did not have to obey “unlawful orders,” a source familiar with the matter told NewsNation.

“We have no plans to pursue” the case any further, the source said.

In November, six Democratic lawmakers appeared in a video in which they urged troops to uphold the Constitution and not to follow unlawful military directives from the Trump administration.

President Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition, “punishable by DEATH,” in a social media post days later.

Pirro’s office had previously asked a grand jury to indict the six but was rebuffed, NewsNation was previously told. A grand jury refusing a request from the Justice Department to bring charges is an unusual occurrence.

Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) who both appeared in the video, had previously asked the Justice Department if it planned to pursue the case further.

“I did this to go on offense,” Slotkin said in an interview in early February. “And to put them in a position where they’re tap dancing. To put them in a position where they have to own their choices of using a U.S. attorney’s office to come after a senator.”

The court case is just one front in a broader dispute that has spiraled between the group of Democratic lawmakers and the Trump administration since they posted the video.

Earlier this month, a federal judge also rejected a push from the Pentagon to censure Kelly and lower his retirement rank over the video.

“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” the judge wrote.  

NBC News first reported the D.C. decision to drop the case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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