WASHINGTON — Three more Democrats said Wednesday that federal prosecutors contacted them following their participation in a video urging members of the military and the intelligence community not to follow illegal orders.
Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania all struck defiant tones in saying they would fight back against any investigation by the Trump administration.
“Donald Trump called for my arrest, prosecution, and execution—all because I said something he didn’t like. Now he’s pressuring his political appointees to harass me for daring to speak up and hold him accountable,” Crow said in a statement.
Goodlander said on X, “It is sad and telling that simply stating a bedrock principle of American law caused the President of the United States to threaten violence against me, and it is downright dangerous that the Justice Department is targeting me for doing my job.
“These threats will not deter, distract, intimidate, or silence me,” she added.
Houlahan, in her social media post, said, “The six of us are being targeted not because we said something untrue, but because we said something President Trump and Secretary Hegseth didn’t want anyone to hear.”
Another of the six lawmakers involved in the video, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said Tuesday that she was being investigated by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a close Trump ally.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday before he issued his statement, Crow said Slotkin “is facing the exact same thing that all the members who filmed this video are facing right now. It’s the same situation that the Trump administration has decided to weaponize the Department of Justice to try to silence their political opponents and suppress dissent. But we are members of Congress, we will do our duty.”
Crow’s office said Pirro’s office reached out last week seeking an interview with Crow about the video, released by the six former military and intelligence community veterans in November. The video reminded service members of their duty not to comply with illegal orders.
In response to a request for comment Wednesday, Pirro’s office said, “We do not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.”
President Donald Trump blasted the lawmakers after the video was released, accusing them of “seditious behavior” and saying their action could be “punishable by death.” The following day, he said on conservative Brian Kilmeade’s radio show that he was “not threatening death” toward the lawmakers, while adding, “I think they’re in serious trouble.”
Crow and three of the other video participants — Goodlander, Houlahan and Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania — said in a joint statement in November that the FBI had contacted the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms requesting interviews with the lawmakers involved in the video, adding that Trump was “using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress.”
The sixth Democrat involved in the video, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired Navy captain, sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Defense Department on Monday over their efforts to censure and demote him over his remarks in the video. The suit called their actions “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
Kelly and Crow said this week that no interviews with the FBI had taken place yet.