This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
It is Democrats in Congress who told the U.S. military to disobey President Donald Trump and not comply with "illegal" orders who are subverting the Constitution, a legal expert has revealed.
It is Charles "Cully" Stimson, the deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, the manager of the National Security Law Program, and a senior adviser at the Heritage Foundation, who wrote at Daily Signal that, "Six Democrat congressmen recently released a video directed at members of the U.S. military and intelligence communities imploring them to 'refuse illegal orders' from President Donald Trump. As former members of the military and intelligence community, they should be ashamed of themselves and retract their insubordinate, ignorant, and politically motivated diatribe."
He cited the video featuring Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.; Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.; Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.; Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo.
"One might expect that their military experience would make them more cautious, not less, about encouraging service members to reflexively doubt the legality of orders from America's commander in chief. But that's exactly what they did," he said.
Their rant:
Stimson cited the Democrats' claim that Trump's administration is "pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens."
"Really? How?" Stimson wrote. "These claims are simply false, no matter how fearful the tone. Military recruiting and morale are at historic highs. If service members are truly under 'enormous stress,' why are retention and recruitment numbers soaring?"
Further, the Democrats claimed the threats to the Constitution are coming "from right here at home."
"How exactly? They don't say," Stimson wrote.
He said military members already know they must not follow illegal orders but "what does that have to do with anything?"
The Democrats "never mention a single Trump administration order—or even a policy area—which they believe violates the Constitution. This vagueness reveals the real purpose of the video—political theater and yet another example of Trump Derangement Syndrome," he wrote.
He pointed out Crow, during an interview, was unable to name even one order from Trump that is illegal.
If members of the military doubt an order's legality, they "can—and do—consult with a uniformed lawyer, called a judge advocate general officer. I know, because I served as a Navy JAG for 30 years and retired as a two-time commanding officer with rank of captain," Stimson noted.
"The president doesn't pick up the phone and call a service member and order him to carry out a mission. Military orders flow through multiple levels—from the president to the secretary of defense, through the joint chiefs, to combatant commanders, to senior officers and eventually to units and individual service members. At each level, uniformed lawyers review orders and establish standing rules of engagement and specific rules of engagement for a particular mission," Stimson explained. "These congressmen know this, but that apparently didn't matter to them."
"These lawmakers' actions and words undermine good order and discipline in the armed forces by encouraging U.S. military personnel to question the orders of the commander in chief of the armed forces for no good reason, based on nothing more than mere political disagreement," he said.
"The Democrat congressmen should withdraw the video and apologize. They are undermining the authority of the commander in chief of the armed forces—an authority constitutionally vested in the president. If anyone is violating their oath to 'support and defend the Constitution,' it is them. Encouraging military personnel to disregard legitimate presidential authority based on unspecified, partisan grievances doesn't protect the Constitution—it subverts it."
