Donald Trump begins issuing unlawful orders, as ex-CIA chief urges personnel to defy Trump’s unlawful orders
Donald Trump has begun issuing unlawful orders to U.S. military personnel, creating a situation in which those personnel will need to decide whether to obey or defy an illegal order from their Commander in Chief. This comes on the same day that the recently retired Director of CIA has begun openly urging members of the executive branch to defy any illegal orders that Trump might give.
The series of events began earlier today when former CIA Chief John Brennan publicly stated that if Donald Trump orders the Department of Justice to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, “it is the obligation of executive branch officials to refuse to carry out these orders.” (link). Trump would be committing obstruction of justice by trying to fire Mueller, thus making it an illegal order. And, as if on cue, Trump did in fact begin issuing unlawful orders today of a different kind.
Trump instructed active duty military personnel to call Congress and pressure them on their TrumpCare votes, as reported by the Washington Post (link). This prompted MSNBC analyst and U.S. military veteran Malcolm Nance to flatly state that “Trump has starting issuing unlawful orders.” (link). This represents, in the early stages at the least, the kind of Constitutional crisis that experts have been warning about since the erratic and criminally compromised Trump first took office.
Trump illegally ordering military personnel to pressure Congress is not remotely on the same level as, for instance, Trump illegally ordering the military to use chemical weapons on United States soil. But some experts have long warned that this is how it incrementally begins. In any case John Brennan’s decision to encourage the executive branch to defy Trump’s illegal orders may be an even more remarkable development, when one considers that Brennan was a top federal official just months ago.
