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WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress are pressing the Pentagon's top two leaders to ensure the military is not swept up in politics during the presidential election and that active-duty troops are not used illegally as a domestic police force.
The concerns come as the campaign heats up — the first presidential vote since the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, aimed at preventing Joe Biden's victory from being certified.
Former President Donald Trump continues to claim that fraud cost him the 2020 election even though his own attorney general, recounts and investigations found no evidence of that. And he still faces charges of illegally conspiring to undo the results of the election.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, lawmakers asked the defense leaders to reaffirm that U.S. law prohibits forces from being used for civilian law enforcement and that they should not carry out unlawful orders.
The letter, written by Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, mirrors questions posed in the run-up to the 2020 election when Trump was already suggesting that he might not accept the results of the election if he lost.
They point to Project 2025, the ultraconservative blueprint for the next Republican White House, in underscoring fears that the military will be used to actively police the southern border. The nearly 1,000-page document includes startling proposals such as firing large swaths of the federal government workforce and disassembling longstanding agencies, including the Justice Department.
While the document was organized by many of Trump's former aides, it is not a part of his campaign, which has its own series of proposals. Trump and his campaign have distanced themselves from the project and he's called some of the proposals extreme.
“In 2020, when the former President and others disrupted the peaceful transfer of power, principled military leaders made it clear they would not help that effort and took an important stand for democracy,” Slotkin said. “Now, prominent leaders are once again declaring that if given a chance, they will use the military for their own political ends.”
In the letter, she and Sherrill said they "feel compelled to look ahead to decisions that you, as the most senior defense officials, may be called upon to make in the next six months.” Slotkin is a former senior defense policy official, and Sherrill served as a Navy helicopter pilot.
When similar questions were posed to former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley just a few months before the 2020 election, he responded bluntly, “I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military.” And he added that, "In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military.”
Austin hasn't spoken much about the issue, but told reporters during a July 2021 press conference at the Pentagon, that “it’s really important to me that this department remain apolitical.” He said he would do everything in his power to ensure that the military did not become “part of the political apparatus.”
Federal law — under the Posse Comitatus Act — prohibits using active-duty military for law enforcement purposes. But the Insurrection Act allows presidents to call on reserve or active-duty military units to suppress an insurrection or rebellion against the nation.
Trump has spoken openly about his plans should he win the presidency, including using the military at the border and in cities struggling with violent crime.