WASHINGTON — Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly slapped a lawsuit against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for sending him a censure letter and moving to dock his military retirement pay as punishment for urging service members to “refuse illegal orders.”
Kelly (D-Ariz.), a retired Navy Captain, accused Hegseth and the Pentagon of pursuing an “unconstitutional and legally baseless proceeding” against him as retaliation over remarks with which the secretary disagreed.
“Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran,” Kelly said in a statement.
“His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”
Last week, Hegseth announced that the Department of the Navy initiated retirement grade determination proceedings against Kelly to demote him and slash his retirement pay.
Kelly was one of six Democratic veterans who cut a controversial video last November, urging military members to disobey illegal orders, without specifying what those directives might be. Hegseth declared that “conduct was seditious in nature.”
Hegseth targeted Kelly because the other five — Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Reps. Jason Crow (D-Col.), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) — weren’t in his purview.
Slotkin, for example, served in the CIA, and the other four weren’t retired, unlike Kelly.
Kelly’s lawsuit argued that the senator’s First Amendment rights are being violated and pointed to the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, which shields members of Congress from criminal and civil liability while engaged in official actions.
“Before that proceeding even began, the President publicly accused Senator Kelly of sedition and treason and demanded punishment,” Kelly’s 46-page lawsuit said. “The Secretary himself has echoed those accusations, announced an investigation.”
“The outcome of any subsequent ‘review’ of Senator Kelly’s grade—even assuming it could lawfully proceed—is foreordained,” it added. “The Constitution does not permit the government to announce the verdict in advance and then subject Senator Kelly or anyone else to a nominal process designed only to fulfill it.”
Kelly’s complaint cited President Trump’s and Hegseth’s social media posts ripping him over the controversial video he participated in last year.
It also pointed to an old clip of Hegseth in 2016 declaring that if “you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander-in-chief.”
The Grand Canyon State senator is seeking a declaration that Hegseth’s actions were unlawful and for the US District Court for the District of Columbia to block them.
The Post contacted the Pentagon for comment.
