Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has opened an extraordinary administrative case against Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona — a sitting United States senator, a decorated Navy veteran, and a former astronaut — in a move that would allow the Pentagon to retroactively strip Kelly of rank and cut the military pension he earned over decades of service. Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ + news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter. The retributive action, announced by Hegseth in a combative social media post Monday morning, accuses the Democrat of “reckless and seditious” conduct and claims the senator engaged in a “pattern of misconduct” by reminding active duty service members of their legal obligation to refuse unlawful orders. — (@) If carried through, the case would mark one of the most aggressive efforts in modern American history to use military disciplinary processes against an elected official, and it signals a sharp escalation in the administration’s effort to silence lawmakers who have criticized its expanding assertions of executive power. The trigger was a November video in which Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers — all of them veterans or former intelligence officials — addressed service members directly. Their message was not radical. It was canonical: Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and international law , troops are required to refuse illegal orders, including those that would violate constitutional rights or constitute war crimes. Hegseth, however, characterized the message as “seditious,” arguing that it undermined discipline within the ranks. He said the Pentagon has initiated retirement-grade determination proceedings, a rarely used administrative process that allows the military to reduce a retired officer’s rank and corresponding pension, and has issued a formal letter of censure that would permanently enter Kelly’s military personnel file. Kelly forcefully rejected the move Monday, calling it an attack on free speech and on generations of service members who have earned their rank through sacrifice. “Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution – including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out,” Kelly wrote. “I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.” “My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country,” he continued. “I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head– all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder.” Kelly warned that the action would have consequences far beyond his own case. “Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way,” he wrote. “It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that.” — (@) “If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it,” Kelly added. “I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.” In recent weeks, Kelly and his legal team have rejected the accusation, noting that the senator was restating a bedrock principle of military law, one Hegseth himself once articulated. In 2016, while speaking at the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, Hegseth said, “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief,” the New York Times reports . The Advocate has reached out to Kelly’s office for comment.