Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on Monday condemned the way he discovered he could be court-martialed for participating in the “unlawful orders” video in which he and a handful of other Democratic lawmakers appeared in mid-November.

“The war council, [Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth notified me in a tweet. I mean, how ridiculous is this? That this type, I mean, is not a normal process, [it] It doesn’t make any sense,” Kelly said Monday on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

The retired Navy fighter pilot continued: “He tweeted something, that’s how they notified me. That’s all I heard from the Navy, and that says it all about Pete Hegseth.”

Kelly was referring to November 24. x publication shared on the White House War Department account. The department, which Hegseth oversees, wrote that it was conducting a “comprehensive review” that could lead to a court-martial process.

Kelly’s comments came after host Tapper asked him if the military had contacted him or if the FBI had contacted him for an interview following the release of the video.

Last week, the FBI said it’s working for schedule interviews with the legislators in the video. President Donald Trump condemned the video as “THIRSTY BEHAVIOR” on social media and appeared to endorse a post calling for the lawmakers to be executed.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (R) criticized the video by Kelly and the other Democratic lawmakers as “despicable, reckless and false” in an X post.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (R) criticized the video by Kelly and the other Democratic lawmakers as “despicable, reckless and false” in an X post.

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However, a group of former military prosecutors said the Pentagon probably couldn’t punish Kelly.

Additionally, Kelly and other Democrats have yet to specify any actual illegal orders issued by Trump. Appearing on the “ABC” showThis weekOn Nov. 23, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), one of the other lawmakers featured in the video, admitted that she had “no knowledge” that such orders had been issued.

Speaking to Tapper on Monday, Kelly accused Hegseth of being focused on seeing “how many views he can get on Twitter,” adding, “that’s what he cares about: He doesn’t care about the law or the process.”

Kelly then doubled down on his repeated claims that Trump is engaging in a campaign of “intimidation” after the president said Kelly and other Democratic lawmakers should “be in jail.”

“Was this the FBI’s idea? Or was it Donald Trump telling the director to tell the FBI to come after us? He’s trying to intimidate us. That’s what he did when he said ‘hang them, execute them,'” he added. “I’m not going to be intimidated by this president or this defense secretary, and they’re not going to silence me.”

Watch a clip of Kelly’s appearance on CNN below.