U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered the Navy Nov. 25 to review recent comments by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a retired Navy captain.

Secretary of the Navy John Phelan was asked to brief Hegseth on the outcome of the review by Dec. 10.

Kelly is under investigation by the Pentagon after his appearance in a video released Nov. 18 in which he and other lawmakers said members of the military can or should “refuse illegal orders.”

Hegseth criticized the video as a “politically motivated influence operation” on social media platform X on Tuesday.

“The despicable video urging [Department of War] troops to ‘refuse illegal orders’ may seem harmless to civilians—but it carries a different weight inside the military,” Hegseth wrote.

“It never named a specific ‘illegal order.’ It created ambiguity rather than clarity. It used carefully scripted, legal-sounding language. It subtly reframed military obedience around partisan distrust instead of established legal processes.”

Kelly’s representatives did not immediately return a request for comment about Tuesday’s military referral.

The senator released a lengthy statement on Monday responding to the Trump administration’s earlier reactions to the video.

“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” Kelly said in part in the statement.

“I’ve given too much of this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”

The video featured Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Kelly, and Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), and Jason Crow (D-Colo.). All of them have served in the military or worked in intelligence in the past.

The elected officials encouraged service members and intelligence personnel to defy orders from the administration that they said were “illegal.” They didn’t name any particular order in the video.

In the video, released shortly after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military had carried out a strike against a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, the lawmakers were all reading from one statement.

“Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear,” they said.

“You can refuse illegal orders … you must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”

The lawmakers said they were aware of “enormous stress and pressure” being put on those in the military, and accused the current administration of “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.”

As justification for the message, they noted that those in service “swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution.”

In Hegseth’s rebuttal of the video, he stated that in the military, “vague rhetoric and ambiguity undermines trust,” and the group was intentionally “sowing doubt through a politically-motivated influence operation,” but that the Department of War “won’t fall for it or stand for it.”

The military “already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders“ and ”does not need political actors injecting doubt into an already clear chain of command,” Hegseth said.

In addition to the military investigation into Kelly, the FBI has also contacted the lawmakers to schedule interviews, signaling a possible probe of the matter.

President Donald Trump has also accused the Congress members of sedition and said punishment for such a crime was “punishable by death” in a social media post.

The Democratic lawmakers have released more social media videos and appeared in several news interviews in response to the investigations this week.

Democratic House members said on Tuesday they were contacted by the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms about the interviews. Houlahan in a statement posted on X also accused the president of “using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress.”

Reaction to the video has included many Democratic officials who have come out to support Kelly and the other lawmakers. One of the most vocal supporters has been Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who called Kelly a “patriot” in a profanity-filled post on X Monday. His brother, Scott Kelly, also defended the lawmaker.

“Integrity has defined my brother’s service to our nation, as a combat veteran, astronaut, and U.S. Senator,” Scott Kelly posted on X. “Any effort to undermine that is an abuse of power.”

Other reactions included former military officers condemning the video.

Buzz Patterson, a career Air Force veteran, combat pilot, and former military aide to former President Bill Clinton, said he was “outraged” at the lawmakers’ actions.

“They are politically using their positions to undercut the command of President Donald J. Trump and circumventing the chain of command,” Patterson said in a video Monday.

“I fully support going forward with whatever prosecutions are warranted and legitimate and I think they are on these individuals. They used their positions, military and in the intelligence community, to expose and put at risk those of us who serve in uniform.”

“I think that what’s going to happen because they violated the military chain of command, that people are going to die,” he said as part of the statement.