Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is demanding specifics from a group of congressional Democrats who urged military service members to ‘refuse illegal orders.’
Graham sent letters to a cohort of congressional Democrats, all with backgrounds in the military or intelligence community, featured in a now-viral video where they urge service members to refuse illegal orders.
The six lawmakers featured in the video were Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., along with Reps. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.; Jason Crow, D-Colo.; Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.; and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.
They reiterated the lines, ‘You can refuse illegal orders,’ or ‘You must refuse illegal orders,’ as they went on to charge that service members do not have to carry out orders from higher-ups that they believe violate the Constitution.
Notably, none of the lawmakers dove into which orders they believed were illegal in the video.
Graham, who served three decades in the Air Force and worked as an Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG), wrote in six letters to each of the lawmakers that he took ‘the issue of unlawful orders very seriously.’
‘I cannot find a single example of an illegal order during this administration, but as a Member of Congress, I believe you owe it to the country to be specific as to which orders you believe are unlawful,’ Graham said.
‘However, to say that I am disturbed by your video encouraging service members and Intelligence Community professionals to refuse ‘unlawful orders’ is an understatement,’ he continued. ‘In that regard, could you please provide clarity on what orders, issued by President Trump or those in his chain of command, you consider illegal?’
The video, and Graham’s letters, come on the heels of rising questions among lawmakers about the legality of President Donald Trump’s authorization of strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, and in the wake of the administration’s deployment of the National Guard to blue cities across the country.
Members of the military have an obligation to follow lawful orders from their superiors, but they can ignore orders deemed illegal, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice — the standardized military justice system enacted in 1951.
When asked to get into specifics, Slotkin’s office pointed Fox News Digital to an interview the senator had with TMZ, where she explained that the video was made in response to service members ‘reaching out to us saying, ‘I don’t know what to do if the commander in chief orders me to do something that is illegal.’’
Slotkin, who was a CIA officer, said service members aren’t ‘trained in police techniques. They’re not trained in arresting, detaining American citizens, crowd control, raids on homes, and they were worried that they could be asked to do those things, that protests could get bad in a place like Chicago, and they could be asked to do these things.’
Fox News Digital reached out for comment from Kelly, Crow, Houlahan, Goodlander and Deluzio but did not immediately hear back.
