Three months ago, six Democratic members of Congress posted a video reminding U.S. military personnel of their well-established duty to "refuse illegal orders." The video, which urged compliance with the law and the Constitution rather than the whims of the man who is currently running the executive branch, irked President Donald Trump, who said the six legislators "should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL." On Tuesday, a grand jury in Washington, D.C., disagreed, rejecting a proposed indictment charging the two senators and four representatives with a federal felony.
Such roadblocks are highly unusual. Grand juries, which hear only the government's side of a case, almost always approve charges recommended by federal prosecutors. But the attempt to prosecute sitting members of Congress for constitutionally protected speech that offended the president was also highly unusual, as the grand jurors apparently recognized.
