By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday that he will demote Senator Mark Kelly from his rank as a retired Navy captain for “reckless misconduct” after he and other Democratic lawmakers urged troops to refuse any illegal orders.
Hegseth said Kelly will see a reduction in retirement pay and a letter of censure attached to his military record. He could face additional measures in the future depending on his actions, he warned in a post on X.
Although extraordinary, the censure stops well short of the Trump administration’s threat to recall Kelly to active duty status in order to prosecute him after what it described as seditious behavior by the former astronaut and decorated veteran.
“Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,” Hegseth said.
Kelly and the other lawmakers have strongly defended their remarks, saying they were restating the law. Kelly could not be immediately reached for comment.
Kelly’s November 18 video message came amid heightened concerns among Democrats, echoed privately by some U.S. military officials, that the Trump administration is violating the law by ordering the U.S. military to kill suspected drug traffickers in strikes on their vessels in Latin American waters.
The Pentagon says those strikes are justified because the drug smugglers are considered terrorists.
However, Hegseth said Kelly’s actions were “seditious in nature.”
President Donald Trump has also accused Kelly and the other Democrats of sedition, saying in a social media post that the crime was punishable by death.
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, sedition and mutiny are among the most serious offenses and can be punishable by death.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiiyama and Franklin Paul)
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