{"id":269133,"date":"2026-01-05T22:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T22:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/269133\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T22:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T22:01:09","slug":"hegseth-aims-to-cut-kellys-retirement-pay-over-lawful-orders-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/269133\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth aims to cut Kelly\u2019s retirement pay over lawful orders video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced<\/a> on X the expanding punishments for Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who participated in a Nov. 18<\/a> video that pleaded with service members to refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n

Kelly, a retired Navy pilot \u2014 along with five other Democratic members of Congress \u2014 released the video amid a barrage of U.S. military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.<\/p>\n

The video came 10 days before The Washington Post published an article<\/a> that called into question the legality of an order that led to the killing of two survivors from the Sept. 2 strike. The article further alleged that in the the opening salvo of the Trump administration\u2019s war on suspected drug traffickers, war crimes had possibly been committed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. \u00a7 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay,\u201d Hegseth said on X.<\/p>\n

Trump characterized the Nov. 18 video as seditious and said the behavior of lawmakers was \u201cpunishable by death,\u201d according<\/a> to a Truth Social post from the president.<\/p>\n

Hegseth announced that he issued a formal letter of censure framing the case for Kelly\u2019s \u201creckless misconduct,\u201d which would remain in Kelly\u2019s permanent military file.<\/p>\n

A list of US military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly, according to Hegseth, has thirty days to submit a response, while the retirement grade determination process will finish in forty five days.<\/p>\n

Hegseth has maintained that Kelly\u2019s participation in the Nov 18. video violates Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, otherwise known as \u201cconduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman\u201d and a \u201cgeneral article\u201d that applies to actions which undermine military discipline.<\/p>\n

Kelly responded quickly to Hegseth\u2019s tweet with one<\/a> of his own, citing his 25 years in the Navy and 39 combat missions as proof of his dedication to the United States Constitution \u2014 and its First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country\u2019s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn\u2019t get it,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI will fight this with everything I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pentagon first announced<\/a> its investigation into Kelly on Nov. 24 and cited, in a social media post, a federal law that allows the Defense Department to recall retired service members to active duty for court-martial.<\/p>\n

The Defense Department ramped up its efforts<\/a> in early December when it revealed that the preliminary review of Kelly had been escalated to \u201can official command investigation\u201d for \u201cserious allegations of misconduct,\u201d according to an emailed Defense Department statement at the time.<\/p>\n

Kelly has publicly stated that the investigation will do nothing to thwart his efforts to hold the Trump administration accountable for their actions and his lawyer provided an email<\/a> to Navy Secretary John Phelan on Dec. 15 laying out a staunch warning that Kelly would take legal action if proceedings regarding his alleged sedition were to continue.<\/p>\n

The U.S. began a military campaign on Sept. 2 targeting alleged drug-carrying vessels off the coast of Venezuela, in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, in support of what the Pentagon has deemed counter-narcotics efforts.<\/p>\n

As of Jan. 2, the Trump administration and U.S. military have disclosed 35 strikes, killing at least 114 people.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military conducted<\/a> a \u201clarge-scale strike\u201d in the early morning on Saturday in Venezuela, capturing President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and transporting him to the United States to be indicted for criminal charges New York.<\/p>\n

Maduro was previously indicted in 2020 on \u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d conspiracy charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X the expanding punishments for Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who participated in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[79,34407,18,19,17,110611,137489,234,235,51692,836],"class_list":{"0":"post-269133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-defense-department","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-mark-kelly","14":"tag-members-of-congress","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-pete-hegseth","18":"tag-video"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115844748562331944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}