WASHINGTON, United States: A US judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Pentagon´s efforts to punish Democratic Senator Mark Kelly over a video in which he and other lawmakers urged military and intelligence personnel to disobey illegal orders.
The preliminary injunction is the latest blow to President Donald Trump´s efforts to target the lawmakers -- whom he initially accused of “seditious behavior, punishable by death” -- after a federal grand jury rejected the Justice Department´s attempts to indict them earlier this week.
“Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly´s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” Judge Richard Leon wrote in his opinion, adding that Kelly´s claim “is likely to succeed on the merits.”
Kelly, a decorated Navy veteran and former astronaut, had asked the court to declare a censure letter placed in his file as well as efforts to potentially reduce his military rank in retirement -- and thus his pension -- to be “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
The lawsuit -- which names Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, the Defence Department, Navy Secretary John Phelan and the department he heads -- said their actions “violate numerous constitutional guarantees and have no basis in statute.”
Kelly hailed the ruling, saying in a statement that the court “made clear that Pete Hegseth violated the constitution when he tried to punish me for something I said.”
In the November video, the lawmakers said Trump´s administration was “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.” —AFP
