President Donald Trump raised the prospect of War Secretary Pete Hegseth and military courts looking into Democrats the president has accused of sedition for their appeal to active service members and intelligence operatives to defy illegal orders from their commander in chief.

Trump made the comments during an interview with Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade on Friday, but the president did underscore that he doesn’t “know for a fact” that Hegseth is investigating the matter.

“I think Pete Hegseth is looking into it. I know they’re looking into it militarily. I don’t know for a fact, but I think the military is looking into it, the military courts.”

Trump has seized on a video this week made by Democratic lawmakers who served either in the military or the country’s national security apparatus, in which they implore military and intelligence personnel to disobey orders they allege are unlawful without specifying which ones.

In multiple social media posts, Trump this week described their call as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

But during his appearance on Kilmeade’s program, Trump remained adamant he is not “threatening them,” while insisting “I think they’re in serious trouble.”

“In the old days, if you said a thing like that, that was punishable by death,” the president said. “I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death. That was seditious behavior. That was a big deal.

“I think what they did is really bad. The hatred is pretty strong,” he added. “These are bad people. These are people that, in my opinion, broke the law. Now, what happens to them? I can’t tell you, but they broke the law. That is a terrible statement. I can say. If I ever said that and there were a Democrat as president, all hell would have broken loose.”

Trump’s comments were preceded by similar ones by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday, in which she also emphasized the president was not threatening the lawmakers, Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), in addition to Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), after they shared the video on Tuesday.

“Many in this room want to talk about the president’s response, but not what brought the president to responding in this way,” Leavitt told reporters. “You have sitting members of the United States Congress who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military, to active-duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus, encouraging them to defy the president’s lawful orders. The sanctity of our military rests on the chain of command, and if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed. It can lead to chaos, and that’s what these members of Congress who swore an oath to abide by the Constitution are essentially encouraging.”

Sedition is a federal crime under 18 United States Code Section 2384, but it is punishable by fines and imprisonment for up to 20 years. Capital punishment is a penalty for treason.