The two Justice Department officials who tried and failed to convince a federal grand jury to indict six sitting members of Congress over their speech in a social media video are a former longtime House Republican staffer and an associate of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannie Pirro, two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News.
Carlton Davis and Steven Vandervelden are both listed as "special counsel" at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. They work in the front office along Pirro and her principal assistant U.S. attorney, special counsels for policy and legislative affairs and director of external affairs.
The pair sought to indict Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan on Tuesday.
As NBC News first reported, the duo was unable to convince a single grand juror that they met the low probable cause threshold to indict any of the six Democrats featured in a social media video advising members of the military and intelligence communities not to obey illegal orders. No career federal prosecutors were involved in the case, a sharp departure from Justice Department norms.
Bloomberg Law first reported on their identities. Pirro praised their work in a statement to NBC News.
Over the course of more than a decade, Davis worked as a Republican staffer on several committees, including the House Select Committee on Benghazi. He worked under Rep. Darrell Issa of California, former Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, former Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. James Comer of Kentucky.
Davis also did a brief stint as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia in 2018, during the Trump administration, according to employment and court records. Court records show he picked up a handful of cases, including a few immigration-related matters.
"Carlton Davis has been an investigator at the highest levels of our government," Pirro said in a statement, adding he also worked for the Eastern District of Virginia and now in her office.
Vandervelden spent 34 years as a local prosecutor in Westchester County, New York, working under Pirro during her time as district attorney in the 1990s and early 2000s. More recently, he’s done work as a dance photographer.
“Steven Vandervelden is one of the best prosecutors and best investigators that I have worked with in well over three decades in the criminal justice system,” Pirro said in the statement. “Any attempt to undercut his expertise is nothing more than an effort to detract from his excellent prosecutorial record to which few can compare.”
“And by the way,” she added, “everybody has a hobby.”
Pirro's office has not publicly indicated whether they will attempt to indict any of the Democratic lawmakers again. Under Justice Department policy, Pirro would need to explicitly sign off on any further attempt to indict the six lawmakers, since a grand jury already returned a "no bill" finding their prior attempt lacked probable cause.
Federal prosecutors are supposed to bring only cases in which they believe the defendants "will more likely than not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by an unbiased trier of fact and that the conviction will be upheld on appeal," according to Justice Department guidelines.
No prosecutions are supposed to be initiated "unless the attorney for the government believes that the admissible evidence is sufficient to obtain and sustain a guilty verdict by an unbiased trier of fact," according to DOJ policy.
A federal judge separately ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration "trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees" when the Pentagon attempted to punish Kelly over the "illegal orders" video.
On his social media platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump had previously accused the Democrats in the video of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
The six lawmakers, all of whom served in either the military or in intelligence roles, said in the video that the Trump administration was pitting members of the military and the intelligence communities “against American citizens," and pointed out that public servants can refuse illegal orders.
“Now, more than ever, the American people need you,” the lawmakers say in the video. “Don’t give up the ship.”
