{"id":18867,"date":"2026-02-11T15:46:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tillis-pans-political-lawfare-after-grand-jury-declines-to-indict-democratic-lawmakers\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:46:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:46:42","slug":"tillis-pans-political-lawfare-after-grand-jury-declines-to-indict-democratic-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/tillis-pans-political-lawfare-after-grand-jury-declines-to-indict-democratic-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tillis pans \u2018political lawfare\u2019 after grand jury declines to indict Democratic lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis slammed the Justice Department\u2019s push to criminally charge Democratic lawmakers who last November urged military servicemembers to disobey illegal orders in a video, calling it \u201cpolitical lawfare\u201d in a post on X on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A Washington, D.C., grand jury on Tuesday declined to<\/a> indict the six lawmakers, who include battleground state Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). It marked another instance of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro failing to clinch a high-profile federal indictment since taking over as the top prosecutor in D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical lawfare waged by either side undermines America’s criminal justice system, which is the gold standard of the world,\u201d Tillis wrote<\/a>. \u201cThankfully in this instance, a jury saw the attempted indictments for what they really were. Political lawfare is not normal, not acceptable, and needs to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House referred Blue Light News to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the North Carolina Republican\u2019s social media post.<\/p>\n

Kelly and Slotkin were joined in the video by Pennsylvania Democratic Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, and also Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution,\u201d they said. \u201cRight now, the threats to our Constitution aren\u2019t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Truth Social spree that followed<\/a>, President Donald Trump called for the lawmakers to face trial for \u201cseditious behavior\u201d and reshared a post that advocated for hanging the Democrats.<\/p>\n

The two-term senator has been a thorn in Trump\u2019s side even before he declared he wouldn\u2019t seek reelection last June<\/a>. Tillis voted against the Big Beautiful Bill<\/a>, Trump’s signature domestic policy package, last year after expressing major concerns with its effects on Medicaid. He\u2019s called for the sacking<\/a> of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. And he\u2019s called for greater congressional cooperation<\/a> in the wake of Trump\u2019s ambitions to expand into Greenland.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Pirro has struggled to persuade a grand jury to indict subjects who draw the ire of the Trump administration. After a panel last August declined to grant a felony indictment against a former DOJ employee who threw a hoagie at a federal officer in Washington, she lamented that DC residents<\/a> \u201cwere so used to crime\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t even care about whether or not the law is violated\u201d in an interview with Fox News.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office has been instructed to move for the highest crime possible, consistent with the law, the statute, and the evidence. And in that one case, in that particular article, we were on point,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the grand jurors don\u2019t take it so seriously. They\u2019re like, \u2018Ah, you know, whatever.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis slammed the Justice Department\u2019s push to criminally charge Democratic lawmakers who last November urged military servicemembers to disobey illegal orders in a video, calling it \u201cpolitical lawfare\u201d in a post on X on Wednesday. A Washington, D.C., grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict the six lawmakers, who include battleground state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}