Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has filed a lawsuit against the War Department and its Secretary, Pete Hegseth, after the department cut his retirement pay from his military service. The War Department’s action stemmed from Kelly calling for those in the military to “refuse illegal orders.”
“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,” Kelly claimed in a lengthy post on X. “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.”
Kelly suggested that the War Department’s action threatens “freedom of speech, the separation of powers, and due process.”
“So 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,” he concluded.
Earlier this month, Hegseth censured Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) over his video directing troops not to follow what he claimed were “illegal orders” from President Trump.
The Pentagon has since “initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. § 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay,” he wrote. Hegseth also issued a formal Letter of Censure that is a “necessary process step, and will be placed in Captain Kelly’s official and permanent military personnel file.”
