(Washington) American federal prosecutors failed to bring charges on Tuesday against six elected Democrats who had urged the military to refuse “illegal orders”, provoking the ire of Donald Trump, who had called for prison sentences, American media reported.
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Several sources indicated to New York Times and at Washington Post that a federal grand jury – made up of Washington citizens – had rejected the Justice Department’s attempts to indict the Democratic deputies responsible for a video last November calling on military and intelligence agents to disobey the “illegal orders” of the Republican president.
In a statement posted Tuesday evening on her Instagram account, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin reiterated that the video she participated in “only cited the law,” adding that she hoped “this will put an end to this politicized investigation once and for all.”
Not getting a grand jury indictment is unusual, both noted. Post and the Times in their articles published Tuesday.
The decision to indict the lawmakers “was, by any measure, an extraordinary attempt by prosecutors to politicize the criminal justice system,” the Times said.
The six elected officials – all of whom served in the army or in the country’s intelligence agencies – never specified which orders to refuse, but Donald Trump has heavily relied on the use of the army for his second term, both at home and abroad.
In the United States, Mr. Trump ordered the National Guard to intervene in several cities to support his policy of crackdown on immigration, despite multiple protests from local leaders.
The 79-year-old Republican has also ordered strikes abroad, including in Nigeria, Iran and a series of deadly attacks on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which left at least 130 dead and which experts say were illegal.
The message published in November angered the White House. Donald Trump had accused these elected Democrats of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” “.
“TRAISTERS WHO TOLD THE ARMY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN PRISON NOW,” said the American president.
