“You can indict a ham sandwich,” former New York Court of Appeals Judge Sol Wachtler once remarked.
That’s how easy it is for a prosecutor to sway a grand jury.
Yet this week, one such jury rejected a case brought by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro against U.S. Reps. Jason Crow (CO), Maggie Goodlander (NH), Chrissy Houlahan (PA), Chris Deluzio (PA), and US Sens. Mark Kelly (AZ) and Elissa Slotkin (MI).
These former members of the military and intelligence services posted a video on social media in November encouraging soldiers and intelligence professionals to refuse illegal orders, as is their right, if not obligation. Pirro’s case against them was so lame it couldn’t satisfy the low standard met by lunchmeat, mere probable cause to move forward with a trial.
Bullies often intimidate by projecting power they don’t possess to get others to back down, go silent, acquiesce, kneel; but, a paper tiger can’t win if someone chooses to fight back. That’s what Crow and his fellow Members of Congress demonstrated this week. And, it’s what Colorado must continue to do for the next three years.
President Donald Trump began his second term already displeased with Colorado because we voted for his opponent, we allow mail-in voting, and we limit cooperation with federal authorities on immigration.
Since he took office, Colorado has added to these transgressions. Our state insists on holding former county clerk Tina Peters accountable for breaking the law and serving her sentence. Representative Lauren Boebert was one of four Republicans that signed a petition to force a vote to release the millions of documents and evidence held by the federal government in the case agaisnt convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Oh, and then Rep. Crow insisted on exercising his right to free speech.
For these sins, President Trump has targeted the state for retribution.
In September, 2025, he announced he was moving Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.
In October, the Department of Energy canceled more than $550 million for carbon emission reduction projects in Colorado.
In November, Trump vilified Crow’s video on social media: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” and the administration launched a sham investigation.
December was a busy month for retaliation. The president announced he would dismantle the Boulder-based National Center for Atmospheric Research, vetoed a unanimously-passed bill to finish a water conduit to southeastern Colorado residents, rejected emergency funds for fire and flood disasters in western Colorado, canceled $109 million in transportation grants for Colorado, and issued a fake pardon to Tina Peters.
In January, the administration notified the state that it would withhold funds for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Social Services Block Grant program and the Child Care and Development Fund pending “review.”
In February, the administration announced it would take back $25 million in health funds from Colorado.
Various administration spokesmen and women have argued that the president rescinded grants and vetoed the Arkansas Valley conduit bill to curb “wasteful” spending and advance fiscal stewardship. These comments would be less laughable if the administration and its sycophantic Congress hadn’t contributed so bigly to the national debt, $2.25 trillion in 2025 alone. Fortunately, the state has fought back by appealing the decisions or suing and has already won some reprieve.
States often win when the federal government attempts to force compliance through intimidation. President Biden tried to withhold school lunch funding from schools that use biological sex as a determining factor in sports and bathrooms, Title X funding from a state that limited abortion referrals, and transit funds another state that doesn’t allow unions to take dues directly out of paychecks.
Colorado may not be able to stop the loss of Space Command but it will likely win all of the funding battles. In the meanwhile, the state must not comply with Trump’s demands regarding Tina Peters or our election laws.
Colorado isn’t just standing up for itself but for the constitutional provisions that ensure the division of power between the federal government and states known as federalism.
In the words of that inspiring November video: “Don’t give up the ship!”
Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.
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