US grand jury rejects charges against 6 Democrat lawmakers Trump wanted jailed

Federal prosecutors failed to bring charges Tuesday against six Democratic lawmakers who urged service members to refuse illegal orders, outraging US President Donald Trump, who had called for jail time, US media reported.

Sources told The New York Times and The Washington Post that a federal grand jury – composed of local citizens in Washington – denied the Justice Department’s attempts to indict the Democratic lawmakers who posted a short video urging conscientious service.

In the video posted to social media in November, members of Congress called on the military to “refuse illegal orders” and featured Arizona’s Mark Kelly, Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin, Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

In a statement posted to her Instagram account Tuesday night, Slotkin reiterated that the 90-second video “simply quoted the law”, adding “hopefully, this ends this politicised investigation for good”.

The Washington Post noted that it’s “exceedingly rare” for federal prosecutors to strike out in a grand jury proceeding because they “need to convince only a majority of grand jurors that there is a probably cause that a crime was committed – a relatively low threshold”.