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United States President Donald Trump has floated the possibility of the death penalty for a group of Democratic Congress members who called upon the military and intelligence community to refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n
He also suggested he would be in favour of imprisoning the Democrats for their statement.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThis is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???\u201d Trump wrote<\/a> on Thursday, as part of a series of posts on his platform Truth Social.<\/p>\n A follow-up message<\/a>, published about 40 minutes later, contained only five words: \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!\u201d<\/p>\n The Democratic Party quickly denounced<\/a> the Republican leader\u2019s remarks as \u201cabsolutely vile\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s threat came in response to a video<\/a> published on November 18, containing clips of six Democratic senators and representatives, all of them veterans of the US military or its intelligence services.<\/p>\n In the video, the Congress members remind their colleagues in the armed forces and intelligence community of their duty to \u201crefuse illegal orders\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,\u201d the Congress members said. \u201cAmericans trust their military, but that trust is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n The Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it illegal for service members to willfully disobey the orders of a superior officer.<\/p>\n But such orders are only lawful if they do not run \u201ccontrary to the Constitution, the laws of the United States or lawful superior orders\u201d. An order that is \u201cbeyond the authority of the official issuing it\u201d is also considered unlawful.<\/p>\n As a result, it is widely understood under US law that soldiers and service members have an obligation to reject orders they understand to be illegal.<\/p>\n In a landmark 1969 case known as United States v Keenan, a military court ruled, \u201cObedience to a lawful order is justified, but one in execution of a patently illegal order is not.\u201d<\/p>\n The video Democrats released this week suggests that service members are facing such a situation today.<\/p>\n In a stitched-together statement featuring the voices of several Congress members, including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, the Democrats appeal to military and intelligence workers to stand up to illegal demands.<\/p>\n \u201cYou must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution,\u201d the Democrats said in their collective statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know this is hard, and that it\u2019s is a difficult time to be a public servant. But whether you\u2019re serving in the CIA, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, your vigilance is critical. And know that we have your back.\u201d<\/p>\n Representatives Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania also took part in the video.<\/p>\n They end their video with a popular slogan in the military: \u201cDon\u2019t give up the ship.\u201d The phrase refers to the dying cry of a 19th-century US Navy captain, rallying his fellow sailors to fight until the end.<\/p>\n But some Republicans have interpreted the video as a call to defy orders on political grounds.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, for instance, posted<\/a> on social media that \u201cDemocrat lawmakers are now openly calling for insurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats quickly fired back, arguing they were simply pointing to existing military law and court precedent.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the law. Passed down from our Founding Fathers, to ensure our military upholds its oath to the Constitution \u2014 not a king,\u201d Slotkin said<\/a> in response to Miller\u2019s post. \u201cGiven you\u2019re directing much of a military policy, you should buff up on the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Crow, meanwhile, called out policies he considers to be in violation of US law, including Trump\u2019s decision to deploy military troops to police civilians and the recent bombing campaign against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n \u201cThe President is trampling on the Constitution,\u201d Crow wrote<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cStop politicizing our troops. Stop illegal military strikes. Stop pitting our servicemembers against the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 restricts the use of the military for domestic law enforcement, and legal experts, including at the United Nations, have warned that the boat-bombing campaign runs afoul of the UN Charter, as well as international and domestic human rights laws.<\/p>\n \u201cThese attacks \u2014 and their mounting human cost \u2014 are unacceptable,\u201d Volker Turk, the UN\u2019s human rights chief, said last month.<\/p>\n He added that the \u201cextrajudicial killings\u201d of alleged drug smugglers on the boats \u201cfind no justification in international law\u201d. At least 83 people have been killed in the attacks.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s threats against the Democratic lawmakers is not the first time Trump has dangled the prospect of imprisonment \u2014 or even death \u2014 in front of political rivals.<\/p>\n During his successful 2016 presidential campaign, Trump turned the possibility of jailing his political rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, into a popular rallying cry.<\/p>\n Crowds at his events would applaud him and chant, \u201cLock her up! Lock her up!\u201d<\/p>\n Trump had claimed that Clinton\u2019s use of a private email server merited her incarceration, framing her actions as corrupt. \u201cFor what she\u2019s done, they should lock her up. They should. It\u2019s disgraceful,\u201d he told a 2016 campaign event in North Carolina.<\/p>\n Even after taking office, Trump continued to threaten his critics and perceived opponents with arrest. In 2020, for instance, he took to social media to push<\/a> for the jailing of those involved in a 2016 investigation into alleged Russian election interference, which he considers a \u201choax\u201d.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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