2:19A panoramic scene as morning dawns over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, November 18, 2025. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The disagreement between a cohort of Democratic legislators who are veterans and President Donald Trump has now escalated into a formal inquiry after the president labeled their communication to U.S. military personnel to defy "unlawful" directives as "SUBVERSIVE CONDUCT."
However, as government investigators endeavor to question the six Democrats, initiating charges of sedition has traditionally proven challenging, based on the legal definition.
A panoramic scene as morning dawns over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, November 18, 2025.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Trump and his administration are singling out Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, Reps. Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, all of whom had tenures in the armed forces or intelligence services.
The group released a recording on social media last week reminding service members of their enlistment pledge and their responsibility to disregard "illegal commands."
"Hold the line," they stated.
Trump reacted on social media by referring to the six Democrats as "traitors" and asserting "they ought to be TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AND TRIED IN COURT."
"Their remarks cannot be allowed to pass — We won’t maintain a Country anymore!!! A precedent MUST BE SET," Trump declared.
On Monday, the Defense Department declared it would commence a "comprehensive investigation" into Kelly, and FBI Director Kash Patel conveyed that any agency inquiry would be "conducted by the career specialists and analysts present at the FBI."
Sedition is typically defined as any endeavor to challenge or unsettle the government; however, the federal penal code includes exceedingly precise standards.
The code characterizes "seditious conspiracy" as two or more suspects colluding "to subvert, suppress, or obliterate through force the Government of the United States, or to instigate conflict against them, or to forcefully resist its authority, or forcefully prevent, impede, or postpone the enforcement of any United States law, or forcibly seize, take, or occupy any United States property against its authority, each shall be subject to fines under this title or imprisonment for a duration not exceeding twenty years, or both."
A conviction could result in a highest prison term of 20 years, coupled with a financial penalty.
A detailed view of the Initial Print of the Ultimate Text of the United States Constitution is on view during a press preview at Sotheby’s, Sept. 17, 2021, in New York.Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Independently, as per the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a member of the armed services would be liable for mutiny or sedition allegations under three stipulations.
- A suspect who possesses the "intention to supplant or override legitimate military power, refuses, jointly with any other individual to heed directives or in another manner perform his responsibility or instigates any brutality or disturbance is culpable of mutiny."
- The suspect "intending to precipitate the subversion or decimation of lawful civilian power, generates, jointly with any other individual, uprising, brutality, or another commotion against that power is guilty of sedition."
- And the suspect "neglects to exert their utmost to avert and put down a mutiny or sedition being perpetrated in their presence, or neglects to employ all justifiable avenues to notify his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has justification to consider is transpiring, is liable for a failure to quash or disclose a mutiny or sedition."
Military personnel who are adjudicated guilty of sedition "shall be sanctioned by mortality or another form of punishment as a court-martial may decree," according to the legal code.
The UCMJ, however, forbids service members from adhering to orders that are illegitimate. Armed service members are bound to decline illegal orders under military protocol.
Seditious conspiracy has scarcely been levied or prosecuted by federal tribunals given the legal criteria that must be achieved.
Nonetheless, seditious conspiracy accusations were dispensed against several of the chief orchestrators of the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt at the Capitol.
Authorities attempt to block Pro-Trump demonstrators from gaining entry into the edifice as they overrun the Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021.Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In March 2022, Joshua James, a contingent of the far-right militia the Oath Keepers, confessed guilt to seditious conspiracy charges for his engagement in the revolt and was condemned to three years of probationary supervision.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and chapter head Kelly Meggs were pronounced guilty of seditious conspiracy in November 2022 for their involvement in the revolt and condemned to 18 and 12 years imprisonment, correspondingly.
In May 2023, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy, coupled with four other Proud Boys members Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean. A fifth Proud Boys suspect, Dominic Pezzola, was vindicated on seditious conspiracy allegations in the same judicial proceeding but convicted on other charges correlated with his role in the riot.
The Proud Boys members who were adjudicated guilty on the seditious conspiracy were sentenced to incarceration terms that spanned from 15 to 22 years.
Mere hours after he was reinstated in office, the president issued an executive mandate that exonerated Tarrio and shortened the sentences of Biggs, Rehl, Nordean, Rhodes and Meggs to duration served.
Greg Rinckey, erstwhile U.S. Army attorney and currently founding partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC, which focuses on federal employment jurisprudence, conveyed to ABC News Live Prime that there exist several judicial routes for the administration to undertake against Kelly, who has been resigned for 14 years, but each poses legal obstacles.
The facade of the Richard B Russell Federal Building and Courthouse, Aug. 28, 2023, in Atlanta.Megan Varner/Getty Images
"There exists a complete plethora of avenues here. It could extend from a court martial proposal, it could span to a grade evaluation board where they endeavor to lessen the standing of Sen. Kelly…You could obtain a letter of reproach," Rinckey noted.
"I certainly anticipate this is going to offer some snags to prosecute Senator Kelly for sedition," he appended.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
