February 11, 2026 09:07 AM UTC

Rep. Jason Crow Triumphant After Trump's Latest Grand Jury Faceplant

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• by: Colorado Pols

As AP reports via the Aurora Sentinel, the Trump administration’s attempt to retaliate against a group of veteran Democratic lawmakers who posted a video message last fall correctly reminding members of the military of their obligation to refuse illegal orders, for which Donald Trump originally suggested that these lawmakers including Colorado’s Rep. Jason Crow be literally put to death, failed yesterday after a federal grand jury refused to support an indictment sought by Trump’s close personal ally and D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro:

A grand jury in Washington refused Tuesday to indict Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow and other Democratic lawmakers in connection with a video in which they urged U.S. military members to resist “illegal orders,” according to a person familiar with the matter.

“Donald Trump’s DOJ just tried — and failed — to indict me in front of a grand jury,” Crow said in a statement Tuesday night. “Americans should be furious that Trump and his goons tried to weaponize our justice system again against his political opponents. His attempts to intimidate and silence us will always fail.”

Speaking with reporters after the news broke yesterday evening, Punchbowl News reports Rep. Crow had some less printable things to say, not that we can blame him:

The Democratic lawmakers loudly declared that they wouldn’t be silenced by what they see as unprecedented intimidation tactics used by President Donald Trump and top administration officials.

“If these fuckers think that they’re going to intimidate us and threaten and bully me in the silence, and they’re going to go after political opponents and get us to back down, they have another thing coming,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said. “The tide is turning.” [Pols emphasis]

The refusal by this grand jury to support charges against these lawmakers is another spectacular failure by Trump’s Justice Department to carry out Trump’s unprecedented abuse of executive power for personal and partisan political objectives, after prosecutors similarly failed to bring charges against Trump’s longtime nemeses Letitia James and James Comey. All of these humiliating prosecutorial failures have one thing in common: Trump demanded them, even firing prosecutors in James’ and Comey’s cases who told him there was nothing to prosecute.

As CBS News reports, it’s getting to the point where lawyers with any interest in retaining a shred of integrity–which obviously doesn’t include FOX News celeb Pirro–should think long and hard before taking on another one of these outrageous personal vendetta lawfare cases on behalf of a President with no understanding of the law beyond contempt for it:

It is highly unusual for grand juries to decline indictments, but the Justice Department has struggled with grand juries in recent months, especially in politically charged cases. After a federal judge tossed out the federal charges against Comey and James in Virginia, two different grand juries refused to re-indict James on bank fraud charges.

“The attempt to indict these members of Congress is shocking, more so than the indictments of James Comey and Letitia James. It is not enough that the grand jury declined to indict. Every Justice Department attorney involved in submitting this indictment for the grand jury’s consideration has violated the rules of professional conduct, including supervisors,” said Kyle Boynton, a former federal prosecutor who also advised lawyers at the department on professional conduct rules for the Professional Responsibility Advisory Board.

“No lawyer, competent or otherwise, could have looked at the statute and concluded this plainly protected speech constituted a felony,” Boynton added. “Because the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility will do nothing, the District Court should immediately begin an inquiry into this misconduct and make appropriate referrals to the DC Bar.”

While the Justice Department struggles with this latest humiliation forced upon them by Trump’s insatiable ego, Jason Crow and his crew of dissenting shipmates are vindicated, just as their message to troops that they have an obligation to refuse illegal orders has been justified by subsequent revelations. Once again, the judicial process is proving to be the crucial check against an executive branch run amok and a legislative branch unwilling to intervene.

Thanks to another grand jury that truly put “America first,” the Framers’ checks and balances against tyranny held once again.

We’re relieved, but how we ever got this far down the road toward tyranny to begin with is the great unresolved dilemma of our times.