U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., told the Justice Department on Thursday, Feb. 5, she won’t agree to a requested interview regarding a video she made in November urging members of the military and intelligence community to disobey illegal orders and is considering a lawsuit against the Trump administration for violating her rights.
“At this point I’m not going to be sitting down for this inquiry. I’m not going to legitimize their actions,” Slotkin said in a 2 1/2-minute video posted on social media platform X on Feb. 5. “The (November) video we made was public… Our Constitution is crystal clear about freedom of speech.”
“The intimidation is the point and I’m not going to go along with that,” she said.
In November, Slotkin, a former CIA officer and former acting assistant Defense Department secretary, and five other members of Congress with either military or intelligence backgrounds made a video in which they told members of the Armed Services and intelligence agencies that it is their duty to disobey any illegal orders given them. President Donald Trump responded by saying they were traitors and guilty of sedition, though military law makes clear that while there are serious consequences for disobeying lawful orders, military personnel and others can reject unlawful ones or be held potentially liable later for following them.
Slotkin and the others did not enumerate any specific orders they were claiming were illegal and should be disobeyed. But Slotkin had previously questioned the legality of the Trump administration’s strikes on boats in international waters, which it claimed were being operated by drug runners and the administration’s posting of military personnel in U.S. cities if they were asked to take on law enforcement duties without proper authorization.
Since then, Slotkin has been the victim of threats and said that the FBI was investigating her. In mid-January, she told the New York Times that Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington D.C., had requested an interview as part of an inquiry, though Pirro’s office declined to confirm that.
On Feb. 5, ahead of Slotkin’s release of the new video, her lawyer − Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the southern district in New York − sent letters to Pirro saying Slotkin was refusing an interview because “the message of the (November) video was uncontroversial and incontrovertible” and giving Pirro’s office notice to retain any pertinent records in advance of “anticipated litigation” concerning Slotkin’s rights.
At different points, the letters said Slotkin was reserving her right to sue for “malicious prosecution” and that Pirro’s office was engaged in a “vindictive and retaliatory investigation.”
Pirro’s office had no comment and the Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bharara also sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting she direct Pirro’s office to close any inquiry immediately given that no crime had been committed and Justice Department policy bars criminal prosecution unless there is probable cause that a federal offense has been committed. He also noted that Bondi and other top administration officials had noted in past comments of their own that the Uniform Code of Military Justice “prohibits the military from following a plainly unlawful act.”
Bharara also noted that Slotkin enjoys added protection to speak on matters of public policy as a member of Congress and argued that Trump’s earlier comments made clear this “is retaliation against perceived critics, not justice.”
Other Democrats involved in the video have said they have been the targets of inquiries as well and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, a former astronaut and retired Navy pilot, has sued Pete Hegseth, secretary of the Department of Defense, referred to as the Department of War by the Trump administration, for calling for his rank to be demoted because of his participation in the video.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on X @tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Slotkin considering suing Trump administration for investigations
Reporting by Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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