Three more Democratic lawmakers who participated in a video message encouraging service members to «refuse illegal orders» said they are being investigated by federal prosecutors.  

Reps. Jason Crow, of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan, of Pennsylvania, and Maggie Goodlander, of New Hampshire, all indicated Wednesday that they received inquiries from U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro asking for an interview with them or their attorneys, according to The New York Times. 

«Trump’s political cronies at the Justice Department are trying to threaten and intimidate us,» Crow said in a post on X. «Well, he’s picked a fight with the wrong people. I will always uphold my oath to the Constitution.» 

«We are not going to back away,» he added in a video message. «Our job, our duty is to make sure that the law is followed. We will not be threatened, we will not be intimidated, and we will not be silenced. I am more emboldened than ever to make sure that I am upholding my duty and I will not back down.»

DEM SENATOR SAYS SHE’S UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION OVER ‘UNLAWFUL ORDERS’ VIDEO

The controversial video, which was posted in November, featured Crow, Houlahan, Goodlander, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.  

All the Democrats who participated in the video, which was slammed as a call to defy President Donald Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, had military and intelligence backgrounds. 

The video was released amid a nationwide debate about Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to various cities across the country.

Trump criticized the video and said in multiple Truth Social posts that the lawmakers who participated in it had engaged in «seditious behavior.» 

«It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,» the president wrote on Nov. 20. 

The same day, Trump wrote in a separate Truth Social post, «SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!»

DEMOCRATIC SENATOR ‘NOT AWARE’ IF TRUMP GAVE ANY ILLEGAL MILITARY ORDERS AMID VIDEO CONTROVERSY

Six Democratic lawmakers, Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and Repa. Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow, released a video directed at service members and intelligence officers. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Mark Kelly; Elissa Slotkin; Congress)

The Times reported earlier this week that Pirro’s office sent an email to the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms requesting an interview with Slotkin or her private counsel.  

«Facts matter little, but the threat matters quite a bit,» Slotkin told the Times. «The threat of legal action; the threat to your family; the threat to your staff; the threat to you.» 

Pirro’s office would not confirm or deny the existence of the probe. 

«No matter the threats, I’m not backing down,» Goodlander said in a video posted to X on Wednesday. «It is sad, telling and downright dangerous that simply stating a bedrock principle of American law caused the President, our Commander in Chief, to threaten violence against me and to weaponize the Department of Justice against me.»

President Donald Trump, alongside Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Dec. 2, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

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«Like my colleagues, I was contacted by federal prosecutors who are investigating me for making a video reminding servicemembers not to follow illegal orders,» Houlahan said in another X post. «The six of us are being targeted not because we said something untrue, but because we said something President Trump and Secretary Hegseth didn’t want anyone to hear.» 

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

Iran appeared to reopen its airspace on Thursday after a sudden overnight closure disrupted flights across the region, even as airlines largely continued to avoid the country amid heightened security warnings and ongoing regional tensions. 

The overnight closure lasted around five hours after a Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, was issued, according to the aviation risk-monitoring site Safe Airspace. 

Safe Airspace warns that the main danger for civil aircraft in Iranian airspace is misidentification by air defense systems during heightened tensions, rating the overall risk level currently as «One — Do Not Fly.»

TRUMP SAYS THE U.S. WILL TAKE ‘VERY STRONG ACTION’ AGAINST IRAN IF THE REGIME STARTS HANGING PROTESTERS

President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he was informed the killing of protesters in Iran was «stopping.»

«We have been notified and really strongly, but we’ll find out what that all means. But, we’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping,» he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., disagreed with Trump, writing on X that every indication he’s seen shows that the Iranian regime’s killing of anti-government protesters is «still very much in full swing.»

«The death toll is mounting by the hour. Hoping that help is on the way,» he wrote.

TRUMP ENVOY REPORTEDLY MEETS WITH EXILED IRANIAN PRINCE AS REGIME FACES PROTESTS

Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which tracks human rights violations in Iran, said on Wednesday that nationwide protests continued into the 18th day as authorities maintained a near-total internet shutdown.

The group’s aggregated figures showed 617 protest gatherings in 187 cities across the country, the arrest of at least 18,470 people and the confirmed deaths of 2,615 individuals.

HRANA said 2,435 of those killed were protesters, including 13 children under the age of 18.

TOP IRANIAN OFFICIAL DOWNPLAYS DEATH TOLL, BLAMES ‘ISRAELI PLOT’ AS US CONSIDERS STRIKES

Cars burn in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 8, 2026. (Stringer/West Asia News Agency via REUTERS)

Trump has threatened action against the regime, warning Tehran in multiple Truth Social posts to stop killing its people.

«We are locked and loaded and ready to go,» he wrote on New Year’s Day.

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The president said on Tuesday that he had canceled all meetings with Iranian officials and called on protesters to «TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!»

«Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,» Trump wrote, adding, «HELP IS ON ITS WAY.»

Former Democratic Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under former President Barack Obama’s tenure, played a key role in vouching for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the Democratic Party’s 2024 pick for vice president before a massive fraud scandal rocked the Gopher State. 

«There’s nothing that of any substance that was missed by our vetting team,» Holder told CNN in an October 2024 interview as the federal election came down to its final days. 

Walz is in the midst of facing a sweeping fraud scandal involving alleged money laundering operations related to alleged fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services that prosecutors say could total as much as $9 billion, Fox News Digital has reported. Dozens of individuals have been charged amid the investigations, most of whom are from the state’s Somali community. 

The scandal led to Walz dropping his re-election bid to serve a third term as Minnesota governor. 

VANCE CALLS WALZ ‘A JOKE,’ CLAIMS MINNESOTA GOVERNOR ENABLED MASSIVE FRAUD

Walz has said he is «accountable for» the scandal as the state’s top elected official, but has accused Republicans and the Trump administration of sensationalizing multibillion dollar figures of alleged fraud. 

Walz bucked calls to step down as governor, declaring during a press conference Tuesday: «Over my dead body will that happen.»

More than a year ago, Walz’s run on the 2024 Democratic ticket catapulted his national name recognition after serving in politics for decades, including in the U.S. Congress from 2007 until 2019, before his election as governor. Ahead of his name being floated as a potential vice presidential contender, Walz was a relatively unknown name to everyday Americans. 

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Obama’s former attorney general to lead the vetting process of her potential running mates during the 2024 cycle. 

Holder is a longtime Obama ally and was one of the officials tasked with vetting Obama’s potential running mates back in the 2008 election cycle before landing on then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. 

Holder told the media in 2004 that Walz was not at the top of his list when vetting 11 candidates for Harris’ running mate, but that he moved up the list of names as Holder reviewed his «very impressive» and «significant» work in Minnesota, including signing a law in 2023 for universal free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students in the state, KSTP reported in November 2024 ahead of the election. 

«As part of the process, the vetting process, I looked at almost every YouTube he’s ever been on,» Holder told KSTP of Walz. «Everything we could ever find about his media interactions and he’s a genuine nice guy. He’s got that Minnesota Nice thing.»

«There was a chemistry that I saw, I actually saw that happen with Kamala Harris and with Tim Walz,» Holder added at the time. «So it was a combination, I think, of accomplishments and chemistry that propelled him to the number two spot on the ticket.»

A source with knowledge of Walz’s vetting process told Fox News Digital that the fraud investigation was included in the vetting process, as details had already emerged during the governor’s 2022 re-election race. 

«Governor Walz’s Department of Education had been in contact with the FBI regarding investigations into organizations diverting funds from child nutrition programs,» the source explained. «This issue was not a factor in the 2024 presidential campaign, nor did Kamala Harris’s vice presidential choice ultimately prove to be a negative factor in the race.» 

BLAGOJEVICH TELLS WALZ IF HE DIDN’T ‘DO IT’, GO DOWN FIGHTING: ‘MAKES ME THINK HIS HANDS ARE UNCLEAN’

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s emergence as the vice presidential pick quickly drew scrutiny over a string of past controversies.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Walz’s emergence as the vice presidential pick quickly drew scrutiny over a string of past controversies, including allegations he exaggerated his military service, repeated misstatements about his presence during China’s Tiananmen Square massacre, and questions about his handling of Minnesota’s 2020 riots — issues Republicans seized on as Democrats rushed to elevate him on the national stage. 

The 2024 election cycle was unprecedented for a multitude of reasons, most notably when then-President Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, 2024, amid mounting concerns over his health, and a pair of assassination attempts on then-candidate President Donald Trump’s life. 

Holder joined CNN in October 2024 and defended the vetting process of Walz, calling him an «authentic guy, a person with a great record as the governor of Minnesota and who I think will be a superb vice president.»

COMER SAYS WALZ ‘RETALIATED’ AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWERS WHO WARNED OF MINNESOTA FRAUD FOR YEARS

«He has resonated with the American people,» Holder told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at the time. «He has generated enthusiasm for the ticket. And I think that the slight exaggerations, misspeaking that he has done, and, again, for which he has, you know, taken responsibility, is not something that’s going to ultimately hurt him,» he said of Walz’s past misstatements. 

Holder was pressed if he and «your team of lawyers (missed) important information about him during the vetting process,» considering the previous misstatements. Walz, for example, claimed in 2018 he had carried «weapons in war,» but had not been deployed to an active combat zone across his 24 years in the Army National Guard. 

Gov. Tim Walz has come under scrutiny since the fraud issue came to light in Minnesota. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

«No, I don’t think we did,» Holder responded about whether his team missed anything on Walz’s record. «I mean, I don’t think that we were surprised by any of the things that he has said. And as what he has indicated is that sometimes he misspoke but he is — unlike Donald Trump, who lies like all the time Tim Walz has made some misstatements that he has said, you know, I was wrong in saying that, apologized for making the misstatements.»

Walz has been directly implicated in the Minnesota fraud schemes, though the Trump administration has pinned some of the blame on the governor. 

«I think Tim Walz should resign,» Vice President JD Vance told the media Thursday during a White House press briefing. «Because it’s very clear either that he knew about the fraud in Minneapolis, he knew about the welfare fraud, or at the very least, he looked the other way. I mean, this is not this is not like Lex Luther, right? This is not movie villain fraud. This is the lowest IQ possible fraud.»

‘YOU DON’T GET A PROMOTION’: GOP RIVAL URGES PEGGY FLANAGAN TO QUIT SENATE RACE AFTER WALZ BOWS OUT

Amid the fraud investigations, federal law enforcement converged on Minneapolis in January. A fatal shooting broke out in a residential area Jan. 7 when a woman allegedly attempted to use her car as a weapon against immigration officers in what the Department of Homeland Security called an «act of domestic terrorism.» The woman was shot and killed, sparking fierce condemnation from Democrats and Trump critics, including some lawmakers referring to the incident as a «murder.» 

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Fox News Digital also reached out to Walz’s office and Obama’s office regarding the 2024 vetting process considering the fraud investigations, but did not immediately receive replies. 

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.