Sen. Mark Kelly responds to censure from Pete Hegseth with a lawsuit

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona says he filed a lawsuit against Department of War Sec. Pete Hegseth on Monday.

Hegseth has accused Kelly of committing sedition by suggesting that members of the U.S. military should refuse to comply with orders from the administration. Kelly has said that he intended only for members to refuse unlawful orders.

'I filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense because there are few things as important as standing up for the rights of the very Americans who fought to defend our freedoms.'

Hegseth had ordered Kelly's military retirement pay to be cut and censured the senator, who is a retired U.S. Navy officer.

"Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him — and this or any administration — accountable," said Kelly in a statement on social media. "His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted."

He went on to accuse Hegseth of trying to intimidate other critics of the administration by targeting Kelly.

Kelly concluded, "Today, I filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense because there are few things as important as standing up for the rights of the very Americans who fought to defend our freedoms."

The lawsuit lists Hegseth, the Defense Department, and the U.S. Navy as defendants.

President Donald Trump had also accused Kelly of committing sedition by his comments.

"It was sedition at the highest level, and sedition is a major crime. There can be no other interpretation of what they said!" the president wrote on social media.

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Hegseth had said that Kelly might face additional punishment over his comments.

"Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action," Hegseth said. "These actions are based on Captain Kelly's public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders."

A Blaze News request for comment to the Department of War was not immediately answered.

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