GOP senators blast the DOJ’s attempt to jail their rivals, calling it a ‘reckless’ political scheme driven by Trump’s fury

A grand jury just rejected a stunning attempt by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to criminally indict six Democratic lawmakers, including Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, attempted to secure criminal charges against the Democrats over a video they circulated last year. The video urged military service members and intelligence agents to refuse unlawful orders. 

While many GOP lawmakers agree the video was inappropriate because ‘it encouraged insubordination,’ they were relieved that the aggressive move failed. Senator Thom Tillis applauded the grand jury’s decision to reject what he openly called “lawfare.” Tillis suggested the attempts to indict his Democratic colleagues were purely political, driven by President Trump’s demands that Kelly and Slotkin be “arrested and put on trial” because of the video. 

“Political lawfare waged by either side undermines America’s criminal justice system, which is the gold standard of the world,” Tillis said in a statement. “Thankfully in this instance a jury saw the attempted indictments for what they really were.” According to The Hill, he stressed that “Political lawfare is not normal, not acceptable, and needs to stop.”

It is the line between a democracy and a dictatorship

Other Republicans echoed these concerns, with Senator Chuck Grassley, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, insisting that federal prosecutors really ought to be spending their time on “making our communities safe and going after real lawbreakers.” Many saw this attempt to bring charges as an abuse of power. Senator Lisa Murkowski called bringing criminal charges against sitting senators over their political speech “reckless” and “punitive.” 

One Republican senator, speaking anonymously, raised a serious constitutional point, noting that the attempt appeared to violate the Speech or Debate Clause, which protects federal lawmakers. “There’s the Constitution, it’s called the Speech and Debate Clause. It trumps statute,” the lawmaker stated. Their reactions show the growing divide between the party and the administration, as Republican lawmakers have also made a stand against tariffs and ICE.

What’s even wilder is that Slotkin and Kelly told reporters they only found out about the indictment attempt from the media. Slotkin said, “We literally are finding out from the media, and we have not been formally told what they were trying to charge us with and what law they were using.” Kelly confirmed that since grand jury proceedings are secret, they may never know the specific criminal charges the Justice Department tried to bring against them.

Kelly noted that in 2013, out of 165,000 indictments, only five were unsuccessful. That failure rate makes the rejection a massive embarrassment for the Trump DOJ, according to Senator Richard Blumenthal, who called the attempt “absolutely unprecedented and outrageous.”