In this urgent briefing, I break down new Associated Press reporting that the FBI’s counterterrorism division has opened an inquiry into Members of Congress who appeared in a video urging U.S. service members to refuse illegal orders. I explain why this is far more than a political dispute: it strikes at the core of the FBI’s own governing rules—the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) and the Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations.

These documents prohibit opening any FBI investigation based solely on First Amendment–protected political speech. As someone who worked counterintelligence and counterproliferation cases at DOJ headquarters, I describe how these rules function in practice, why they matter, and why the Bureau’s reported actions represent a direct collision with its legal framework.

The timing—immediately after President Trump publicly accused the lawmakers of “sedition” and invoked the death penalty—raises serious questions about political pressure influencing federal law-enforcement operations.

If political dissent becomes acceptable predication for federal intelligence activity, the democratic guardrails that protect civil society begin to fail. This episode explains what’s happening, why it’s dangerous, and what Congress must demand now.

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