WASHINGTON — The FBI is working to schedule interviews with the six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video urging members of the military and intelligence community not to comply with illegal orders, according to a person familiar with the efforts.
The move, first reported by Fox News, comes days after President Donald Trump accused the Democrats, all of whom previously served in the military or in intelligence roles, of “seditious behavior.”
Details of the investigation were not immediately clear. The lawmakers confirmed they had heard from the House or Senate Sergeants at Arms about the FBI effort.
In a joint statement, four of the Democrats in the video accused Trump of “using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress.”
“No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution,” the statement from Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania said. “We swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship.”
The U.S. Capitol Police referred questions to the FBI, where a bureau spokesperson declined to comment.
Justice Department guidelines require investigative steps against sitting members of Congress to go through an approval process within the Justice Department to ensure that federal law enforcement power isn’t being used for political purposes. But the Trump administration has dismantled the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, which traditionally served as a check on investigations into political figures. That office now has just two prosecutors, down from 36 at the beginning of Trump’s second term, according to a source familiar with the office.
A spokesperson for Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said in a statement, “Senator Kelly won’t be silenced by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s attempt to intimidate him and keep him from doing his job as a U.S. Senator.”
The Defense Department announced on Monday that it was opening an investigation into Kelly, a retired Navy captain, saying he was subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice as a retired member of the military. (The four House Democrats are former military but not retired, while another worked for the CIA.)
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., the former CIA officer, said on X that she is “not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country and our Constitution.”
“The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place,” she said. “He believes in weaponizing the federal government against his perceived enemies and does not believe laws apply to him or his Cabinet. He uses legal harassment as an intimidation tactic to scare people out of speaking up.”
Trump accused the lawmakers — all of whom previously served in the military or in intelligence roles — of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!,” but later claimed he was “not threatening death” for the six Democrats.
In addition to the First Amendment issues at stake, the “speech or debate “clause of Article 1 and Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution gives members of Congress immunity from prosecution for acts taken within the legislative sphere, a fundamental check on the constitutional separation of powers.