The Department of War said Monday it has launched a formal review into Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly after the Arizona lawmaker appeared in a video urging service members to \u201crefuse illegal orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pentagon officials signaled the investigation could escalate fast. Kelly, a retired Navy captain, may be pulled back onto active duty to face a court-martial or other disciplinary action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis matter will be handled in compliance with military law, ensuring due process and impartiality,\u201d the department said, noting it would limit further comment to protect the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement stressed that military retirees can still be hauled before the UCMJ and warned troops that \u201corders are presumed to be lawful\u201d and must be followed. The department pointed to federal statutes such as 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2387, which criminalizes attempts to erode the \u201cloyalty, morale, or discipline\u201d of the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Department of War reminds all individuals that military retirees remain subject to the UCMJ for applicable offenses,\u201d the statement read. \u201cA servicemember\u2019s personal philosophy does not justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of War said Monday it has launched a formal review into Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3927,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/3927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}