US pressure attempt fails: Washington court refuses to indict Democrats – Rezazade 

A federal grand jury in Washington has refused the US Department of Justice's attempt to indict six Democratic lawmakers whom the Donald Trump administration tried to hold accountable for addressing military personnel regarding "illegal orders".

This concerns a video released last year in which a group of congressmen and senators - all with military or intelligence experience - urged active military personnel not to carry out orders that contradict the Constitution or international law. It was this video that became the formal reason for opening a criminal investigation.

Among the defendants in the case are Senator Mark Kelly, a retired US Navy captain and astronaut from Arizona, and Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst from Michigan. Both are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Also indicted in the case were Congressmen Jason Crowe, Chrissy Hoolahan, Chris DeLuzio, and Maggie Goodlander, all of whom had served in the U.S. Army or Navy.

The Justice Department had sought to indict them on a felony charge of “interfering with the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the U.S. armed forces.” However, the grand jury refused to even consider the charges, a rare occurrence in the U.S. legal system, where a bare minimum of evidence is required to bring a case.

Ali Reza Rezazade, an international expert and first vice president of the Iranian opposition in Washington, called the decision a landmark one for the state of American democracy.

“The grand jury has effectively sent a clear message: political dissent is not a criminal offense. It is a serious blow to attempts to turn the justice system into an instrument of political revenge,” he said.

According to Rezazade, the case goes far beyond a specific incident. “We are witnessing a systemic trend: the Trump administration is trying to criminalize the opposition, using the rhetoric of national security as a cover for political repression,” he emphasizes.

Particularly alarming, according to the expert, is the fact that Trump himself has publicly called for punishing Democrats for “insurrection” and even wrote on social media about the possibility of the death penalty for so-called “treason.”

“This is a dangerous precedent for any democracy. When a president openly pressures the judiciary and demands the physical destruction of political opponents, this is no longer just a political struggle, these are signs of authoritarian transformation,” Rezazade notes.

He emphasizes that the jury’s refusal to indict the Democrats also undermines the broader campaign of the Trump administration, which has previously suffered defeats in attempts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“The American legal system has so far demonstrated resilience. But the very fact of such cases shows that a new model of political pressure is being formed in the United States, where criminal law is becoming an instrument of political warfare,” Ali Reza Rezazade summarizes.