Hegseth calls boat strikes ‘lawful’ and ‘successful’ after calls for impeachment

Facing the threat of impeachment, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where he argued that actions taken under his watch were legal operations ordered by President Donald Trump. 

That includes the ongoing war with Iran; airstrikes against Houthi fighters in Yemen; the raid that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro; and airstrikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed at least 240 people.

“Iran, the cartels, Maduro, Yemen: every one was a lawful operation ordered by the commander-in-chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress and executed by American warriors who did their jobs,” Hegseth said at a press conference at the Pentagon.

“These are not high crimes,” he added later. “This is the job. And it’s the job well done.”

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday, accusing the country’s top civilian defense official of usurping congressional power to wage war, overseeing extrajudicial killings abroad, and attempting to suppress a member of Congress’ freedom of speech.

Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives. The fifth article, titled “Extrajudicial Killings,” deals with the boat strikes, alleging that Hegseth ordered such strikes without legal authorization from Congress. The administration’s labeling of drug cartels as “designated terrorist organizations” does not authorize the use of military force, the article points out.

U.S. Southern Command has offered little evidence that the boats it struck were engaged in drug trafficking. The Washington Post reported in December that Hegseth’s guidelines required only “reasonable certainty” that a targeted crew member was affiliated with a terrorist organization. That’s a lower threshold than the “near certainty” standard for lethal force against members of Al-Qaeda or similar groups during the Global War on Terror.

Even if the boat crews were members of a group against which military force was authorized, the article argued, the Defense Department allegedly fell short of international laws of armed conflict by reportedly launching a second strike on the survivors of a boat that it had already destroyed. 

“In denying quarter and refusing rescue, Secretary Hegseth endangered members of the United States Armed Forces in future military engagements by encouraging adversaries to subject American service members to such treatment,” the article reads.

The United Nations took a similar view when it issued a report in September, arguing that the boat strikes may constitute crimes against humanity.

A confidential assessment by the Drug Enforcement Administration published in July found that the boat strikes have not reduced the amount of cocaine entering the U.S., the Washington Post reported at the time. Fentanyl is the leading cause of illicit drug deaths in the U.S., but it largely enters the country over land, not by sea.

“[This resolution] tells our enemies … that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations,” Hegseth said Tuesday about the articles of impeachment.