{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://stanton.house.gov/2025/11/stanton-ansari-grijalva-call-on-hegseth-to-close-investigation-into-war-hero-sen-mark-kelly", "Stanton, Ansari, Grijalva Call on Hegseth to Close Investigation into \u2018War Hero\u2019 Sen. Mark Kelly", "2025-11-28", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "House", "AZ", "Greg Stanton", "S001211", "stanton.house.gov", "stanton", "https://stanton.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Arizona Congressman Greg Stanton, together with Congresswomen Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva, called on Secretary Pete Hegeth to immediately close the Department of Defense\u2019s investigation of Senator Mark Kelly.\n\n\u201cSenator Kelly understands military discipline, constitutional command authority, and knows what service to America looks like,\u201d the Members write. \u201cOpening an investigation into Sen. Kelly on the purported \u201cserious allegations of misconduct\u201d because he accurately reaffirmed the legal duty to follow lawful orders is inconsistent with the Constitution and incompatible with the Department\u2019s tradition of nonpartisanship.\u201d\n\nTheir full letter is HERE and below.\n\n\u2014\n\nSecretary Hegseth:\n\nWe write today in strong opposition to your Department\u2019s investigation of Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.\n\nLast week, Senator Kelly and five other Members of Congress who previously served in the U.S. military or intelligence community released a video restating a core principle of current law and military doctrine: service members must obey lawful orders and are not required to carry out unlawful ones.\n\nIn response, the president and other senior officials publicly labeled the video \u201cseditious\u201d and the president stated the Members\u2019 conduct was \u201cpunishable by death.\u201d Such rhetoric is reckless. It invites political violence, endangers public servants, and deters free speech. Your own public comments referring to these Members as the \u201cSeditious Six\u201d compounds these concerns. As these duly-elected Members continue to receive death threats, we respectfully request that you stop using such dangerous rhetoric.\n\nSenator Kelly has had a long and distinguished career. He is a war hero who has served in more than 39 combat missions in Desert Storm and commanded four Space Shuttle missions. He was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of his astronaut classmates who died in the Columbia disaster. Senator Kelly understands military discipline, constitutional command authority, and knows what service to America looks like.\n\nOpening an investigation into Sen. Kelly on the purported \u201cserious allegations of misconduct\u201d because he accurately reaffirmed the legal duty to follow lawful orders is inconsistent with the Constitution and incompatible with the Department\u2019s tradition of nonpartisanship. Free speech is protected for Members of Congress, just like the general public, and restating settled law is by no means sedition.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://stanton.house.gov/2025/11/stanton-ansari-grijalva-call-on-hegseth-to-close-investigation-into-war-hero-sen-mark-kelly"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6420360188931227, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}