Top officials in President Donald Trump's administration can face prosecution for carrying out his orders to investigate and prosecute Democrats, according to one former Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer.

On Tuesday, Glenn Kirschner – who was a captain in the U.S. Army's JAG corps – told MS NOW host Jen Psaki that the Trump administration's attempts to potentially court-martial Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) could carry serious legal consequences for everyone responsible. He observed that the court-martial process is similar to typical federal court procedures in that the defendant (which Kirschner said is known as "the accused" in the military criminal justice system) has all the same Constitutional rights that other defendants have.

Kirschner went on to argue that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggesting that Sen. Kelly could be called back into active duty in order to be court-martialed would be a violation of that procedure. He added that the other Democrats in Congress who served in the military or in intelligence — who have been singled out by the Trump administration for reminding rank-and-file service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders — have similar rights.

"What I see is Donald Trump abusing his poweras commander-in-chief in themilitary setting by basicallyinsisting that a court-martialbe contemplated, a militaryinvestigation be institutedagainst Senator Mark Kelly, or that the FBIbegin investigating the othermembers of Congress who madethat public serviceannouncement video," Kirschner said. "That wasnothing more than announcingheartland military lawprinciples."

According to Kirschner, because Trump is "abusing his power," any officials who obey illegal orders from the commander-in-chief could likewise find themselves investigated and penalized for carrying out those orders. He specifically named Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel, who is currently attempting to interview the Democrats in the video, as officials who could be prosecuted under a future Democratic administration.

"If a soldier or asailor or a seaman or an airmanobeys an unlawful order, theycould be court-martialed, theycould be dishonorablydischarged, they could beimprisoned at Fort Leavenworth," Kirschner said. "And the standard for that typeof an issue to belitigated is whether they knewit was unlawful or they shouldhave known. How about we don'tput our military members inthat trick bag?"

"They're followingunlawful commands from Donald Trump. And if you're committingoffenses and your defense isgoing to be, 'I was justfollowing orders,'that didn't work out so well at Nuremberg. It certainly didn'twork out so well for Lieutenant Calley when he engaged in massmurder at the My Lai massacre," he continued. "... You knowthat that is something thatwill someday — when the rule oflaw comes back into the lightof day — will have to betackled. They'll have to beheld accountable for thoseabuses."

Watch the segment below:


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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