by Jacob G. Hornberger

February 11, 2026

In what can be called an act of grand-jury nullification, a federal grand jury has rebuffed an effort by the U.S. Justice Department to seek criminal indictments of six members of Congress for having the audacity to remind American military personnel of their duty to refuse to obey unlawful orders of their superiors, including the president, who serves as commander in chief of the military.

The grand-jury rebuff is shocking if for no other reason than a criminal indictment is one of the easiest things that a prosecutor can get. For one thing, the burden of proof for an indictment is extremely low. All that a prosecutor has to show is “probable cause” that a crime has been committed. Moreover, there is no defense lawyer inside the grand-jury room to counteract the arguments of the prosecutor. Sol Wachter, the former chief judge of New York’s highest court, once said, “Any prosecutor worth his salt could indict a ham sandwich.”

And yet, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has just said “No,” refusing to participate in the Justice Department’s patently malicious scheme. After all, everyone knows that even if one is ultimately declared innocent of federal criminal charges, that’s after he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees and has had his life upended by a federal criminal prosecution.

Why did the grand jury, to its everlasting credit, rebuff the Justice Department malicious effort?

Well, possibly because there is no evidence whatsoever — that is, no probable cause or even just a scintilla of evidence — that those six members of Congress committed any crime whatsoever.

After all, as I recently wrote, what those members of Congress stated was the truth — that American military personnel do have a moral and legal duty to refuse to obey unlawful orders. Is it now really a crime in America to speak the truth?

Nonetheless, President Trump furiously maintained that those six members of Congress had engaged in “sedition.” He stated on his social media site: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also shared a post that said, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!”

Imagine: Death! For speaking the truth!

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth began threatening U.S. Senator and retired Navy Captain Mark Kelly, one of the six who issued the admonition, with the possibility of being recalled to active military duty and then severely punished. According to an article in the New York Times, Hegseth called the video in which the six Congress members issued their admonition, “despicable, reckless, and false.” He called the six lawmakers the “Seditious Six” who were encouraging troops to “ignore orders of their Commanders.”

But Trump and Hegseth know full well that that’s not what these six members of Congress did. They didn’t tell troops that they need not obey orders. They said that they need not — and should not — obey unlawful orders.

The difference between those two principles is the difference between night and day.

Oh, did I mention that all six members of Congress are former members of the U.S. national-security establishment? Some seditionists!

So, what is really going on here?

The controversy arose within the context of the Pentagon’s drug-war killings of people in little boats on the high seas near Venezuela. Those killings were clearly illegal under the U.S. Constitution and U.S. law. The Pentagon was serving in a police capacity, helping to enforce U.S. drug laws, albeit hundreds of miles away from American shores. Under the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. criminal-justice system, law-enforcement personnel, including the military when they are acting in a police capacity, are absolutely prohibited from killing drug-war suspects. Rather than kill on sight, the Pentagon had a legal duty to take those people in those little boats into custody and bring them back to the United States for trial.

In fact, let’s not forget that that is precisely why the International Criminal Court right now is prosecuting former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte. The prosecutors are saying that he committed grave crimes by supposedly ordering his drug-war goons to kill drug-war suspects on sight rather than take them into custody and prosecute them.

Trump and Hegseth have to know that they aren’t going to get to first base trying to convict those six members of Congress. In my opinion, what’s really going on here is that Trump and Hegseth do not want U.S. soldiers to be thinking about whether an order is legal or not and instead want blind obedience to whatever orders are issued. In my opinion, that’s the message they are sending to every member of the U.S. military with their aggressive action against those six members of Congress.

After all, it’s worth pointing out that U.S. military personnel have chosen to obey the unlawful orders to kill the people in those little boats. Of course, in doing so, they know that Trump and Hegseth have their backs and will ensure that they will not be prosecuted for doing so.

Blind obedience to orders, including orders to kill, kidnap, torture, and incarcerate is, needless to say, an invaluable asset for any ruler and his national-security establishment, especially in times of a “national emergency,” when establishing and maintaining domestic “order” and “stability” are of the utmost importance. Just ask the unelected socialist-communist, narco-terrorist tyrants in Venezuela that Trump and Hegseth are now maintaining in power and supporting.