Which senior officials or offices authored the latest memos instructing refusal of particular unlawful orders and when were they issued?
Executive summary
Reporting does not identify a new, signed senior‑official “refusal” memo from the Pentagon or the White House instructing troops to refuse specific orders; instead the most recent documents and public communications tied to the controversy are a mix of lawmakers’ public guidance, a civilian legal FAQ, a complaint memo from commentator Pete Hegseth, and earlier presidential rescission memoranda—each issued at different times and by different actors [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. Legal and enforcement offices—most notably the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and the FBI—appear as focal points in the dispute over what orders are lawful, but the sources do not show an OLC or Defense Department memo telling troops to refuse commands [6] [7].
1. What the question really seeks and what the reporting shows
The user asks which senior officials or offices authored the latest memos instructing refusal of particular unlawful orders and when those papers were issued; the available reporting instead shows public urging by elected lawmakers and advice from civilian legal groups, plus a complaint memo from a conservative commentator, rather than a contemporaneous, signed senior‑executive directive telling military personnel to disobey specific commands [1] [2] [3].
2. Lawmakers’ public message — authors, medium and timing
The clearest contemporaneous “instruction” to consider is the video in which six Democratic members of Congress told service members they could legally refuse manifestly unlawful orders; that video and the ensuing public debate were reported in late November 2025 [1] [8] [7]. Those lawmakers are the proximate authors of the public appeal to troops—not a uniformed service legal office—and Reuters and CBS frame the episode as lawmakers’ commentary rather than a formal Defense Department memo [7] [1].
3. Civilian legal guidance and when it appeared
A civilian legal resource frequently cited in coverage is the Military Law Task Force’s FAQ on refusing illegal orders, Version 2, which the MLTF released on November 11, 2025; that document functions as practical legal guidance for service members but is not an official DoD or White House memorandum [2]. Independent policy groups such as the Project On Government Oversight have also published fact sheets urging protection for the duty to refuse unlawful orders; these are advocacy resources rather than executive memoranda [9].
4. Complaint and referral memos tied to the controversy
Conservative commentator Pete Hegseth publicly posted an image of a memo he said he sent to the secretary of the Navy referring Senator Mark Kelly’s comments for review; that referral memo was made public in late November 2025 as part of the broader dispute and was reported by BBC and Reuters [3] [7]. Reporting frames Hegseth’s memo as a complaint/referral from a private actor to an official, not as a Pentagon or White House directive telling troops to disobey orders [3] [7].
5. Presidential memoranda and executive rescissions cited in coverage
Separate from the refusal debate, the White House posted initial rescissions of earlier executive actions and Presidential Memoranda in January 2025—including a Presidential Memorandum of January 14, 2025 (revocation of National Security Presidential Memorandum 5)—and those materials appear in the Federal Register on January 28, 2025 and on the White House site on January 21, 2025; those documents relate to policy reversals and do not constitute memos instructing military disobedience [4] [5].
6. Legal context and enforcement reactions to the “refusal” messaging
Legal scholars cited in the coverage emphasize that servicemembers are required to obey lawful orders but must refuse “manifestly unlawful” orders, and that whether an order is unlawful is a legal determination often resolved after a refusal; reporting also documents that the FBI sought interviews of the six lawmakers to determine whether there was wrongdoing, underscoring DOJ engagement rather than a new senior‑leadership memo telling troops to disobey commands [1] [10] [7] [11]. The Office of Legal Counsel’s controversial role in producing legal opinions that some lawyers call weak or factually doubtful is also central in the debate, but sources do not show an OLC memo that told service members to refuse orders [6].
Bottom line: who authored “refusal” memos and when
No source in the provided reporting identifies a newly issued, signed senior‑official or Pentagon memo that instructs troops to refuse particular orders; the most recent, documentable authors of “refusal” guidance are six Democratic lawmakers via a late‑November 2025 video (reported Nov. 25–26, 2025) and the Military Law Task Force’s FAQ released November 11, 2025, while a complaint/referral memo from Pete Hegseth to the secretary of the Navy was made public in late November 2025 (p1_s10; [1]; [2]