Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s actions could spark investigations for war crimes or outright murder, sources told The Intercept.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Pete Hegseth is under increasing fire for a double-tap strike, first reported by The Intercept in early September, in which the U.S. military killed two survivors of the Trump administration’s initial boat strike in the Caribbean on September 2.

The Washington Post recently reported that Hegseth personally ordered the follow-up attack, giving a spoken order “to kill everybody.” Multiple military legal experts, lawmakers, and now confidential sources within the government who spoke with The Intercept say Hegseth’s actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for a war crime or outright murder.

“Those directly involved in the strike could be charged with murder under the UCMJ or federal law,” said Todd Huntley, a former Staff Judge Advocate who served as a legal adviser on Joint Special Operations task forces conducting drone strikes in Afghanistan and elsewhere, using shorthand for the Uniform Code of Military Justice. “This is about as clear of a case being patently illegal that subordinates would probably not be able to successfully use a following-orders defense.”

  • bthest@lemmy.worldEnglish
    121·
    3 hours ago

    Just like the Jan 6 hearings, they will drag it out for political points, but have no intention to seek actual charges, institutional change, military reform or anything.

    It will just be: “Look at all the evil shit they did! Don’t you wish something could be done! Oh well. Also Maduro bad m’kay, drugs bad m’kay, Hamas bad m’kay, we love troops m’kay. Hearing adjourned!”

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    13·
    5 hours ago

    That would require the administration’s own people to bring those charges.

    And I can already tell you the words you’re going to hear if this makes it to court. “Unlawful Combatant”, a designation we created so we could ignore the rules of war while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Trump declared the Venezuelan drug cartels to be terrorists. Now they’re treating them like we treated the Taliban in Afghanistan.

    These guys are literally just waiting for the next outrageous thing to push this one out of the news cycle.

    And yeah, we’ve been doing airstrikes like this for 20 years.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
    7·
    4 hours ago

    Those asshats will manage to walk. The ICC should step in so they can only travel between the USA and fucking Russia.

  • apftwb@lemmy.world
    6·
    5 hours ago

    Does being convicted of a war crime or murder make you ineligible to be Secretary of Defense?

  • Yeather@lemmy.ca
    7·
    6 hours ago

    50/50 they pardon everyone or Trump uses this opportunity to forcefully retire more generals and get Hegseth out.

      • Yeather@lemmy.ca
        3·
        3 hours ago

        I meant they offer the other generals a sweetheart deal of early retirement in exchange for testimony against Hegseth. IIRC some of the people involved with the torture prison in Iraq got to retire for their testimony.

  • tomi000@lemmy.world
    131·
    7 hours ago

    “held liable” means some bad press in ‘radical left’ media at this point, right?

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    9·
    10 hours ago

    See that’s why they make everyone pull the trigger when they commit murder. Now they’re all complicit, and they have to work for trump and keep him in power. Because if someone with a spine that actually follows the law and constitution gets into office they will face court-martial.

    But we all know that they’ll just get raked over the coals by some committee and told to retire, if that, should a dem take office.

  • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
    712·
    15 hours ago

    Held liable by whom? The President who absolutely would say he agreed with it? The legislature that will talk a good game but fold before doing anything important? The courts who are owned by the parties? Or the police who want this to be SOP, and wouldn’t enforce any orders for arrest?

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      1 hour ago

      Nobody thinks it could happen while the US congress is dominated by Republicans, Trump is the president, and the Supreme Court is 6-3 GOP.

      But, if the Democrats win big enough in the 2026 midterm elections to overcome all the dirty tricks that the Nazis are going to use to try to stay in power, then maybe in 2027 there’s a chance they could start holding Trump to account. But, Trump would still have executive authority and unless he were impeached and this time they actually had the votes to remove him from office, they still couldn’t get his Justice Department to investigate his War Department. Even if they did impeach him and remove him from office, he’s just be replaced by Vance who is part of this whole signal chat.

      So, at a minimum it would probably be 2029 before anything could happen, and would require that the Democrats got a congressional majority in 2026, and held or improved it in 2028 while also taking the presidency. And even then, the Supreme Court would still be 9-3 GOP unless some of the GOP members quit or died. So, it would probably require something radical like expanding the court to get any attempted convictions of higher-up GOP members past that court.

      And, that’s even assuming that the democrats grew a backbone. If they did, they couldn’t do anything to Trump because the Supreme Court already decided the president is immune from anything up to, and including ordering Delta Force to kill the Democratic presidential hopeful. They could maybe go after Hegseth and down, but realistically would they? How many times have the Democrats had a chance to nail Trump, and instead decided that in the interest of national unity to let his crimes slide.

      Then there’s the International Criminal Court. They might risk indicting Hegseth or even Trump for war crimes. However, the US passed the Hague Invasion Act, effectively saying that if any American were ever put on trial for war crimes, the US would invade The Hague. That might deter them from even trying. Under Trump, they’ve already made life hell for a prosecutor who was going after someone who was merely a US ally. If a Democratic president were in office and a Democratic congress were in charge, they probably wouldn’t actually invade, but they still might just ignore any ICC ruling. The US has made it abundantly clear that they’re the world’s only superpower and that international law doesn’t actually apply to the US. And if anybody disagrees, they’re welcome to take on the US military.

    • RipLemmDotEE@lemmy.today
      15·
      13 hours ago

      UCMJ is its own system enforced by the military with its own courts. Hegeseth will probably avoid any repercussions, but holding the chain of command responsible for state sponsored murder will send a clear message about obeying illegal orders.

    • UnspecificGravity@infosec.pub
      21·
      14 hours ago

      I guess some of these people expect to still be around in a couple years when there is a new administration that might feel like it’s a good idea to prosecute people for crimes they committed for trump.

      • bthest@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        Aint a chance in hell anyone will face charges if the succeeding president is Kamala or Hug-a-Nazi Newsom. It would have to be progressive Democrat in office.

        I mean in months after Jan 6 Trump’s head was on the chopping block, public support was gone and yet there was zero interest in Biden or his justice dept to go after him and the democrats didn’t even press him on it.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        6·
        13 hours ago

        in a couple years when there is a new administration

        IF they don’t decide that any resemblance of election integrity is a nuisance they can get rid of with impunity. It’s looking less and less likely.