Representative Nick LaLota of New York’s First Congressional District said he would welcome a “fact-based, politically neutral review” of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decisions with respect to a Sept. 2 military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that has prompted bipartisan calls for an investigation into a follow-up strike that killed two survivors, which some experts say constitutes a war crime or murder.
According to the Trump administration, the president “determined” that the United States is in armed conflict with drug cartels, which the administration has designated terrorist organizations.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that Mr. Hegseth had given a spoken directive to “kill everybody” on a boat that intelligence analysts assert was transporting drugs. As smoke cleared from an initial missile strike on the boat, two survivors were observed clinging to the wreckage. The Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike to comply with Mr. Hegseth’s directive, according to The Post, which cited “two people familiar with the matter.”
The campaign against alleged drug-trafficking in waters off Central America that has reportedly killed more than 80 people is unlawful, according to several government officials and experts. These critics say that the second strike on Sept. 2 amounts to a war crime or murder because the alleged drug traffickers posed no imminent threat to the United States and are not in fact in armed conflict with it.
On the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Hegseth wrote on Friday that “As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland” and that “every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that the initial order from Mr. Hegseth directing that everyone aboard the vessel be killed had come from President Trump. The president, however, had told reporters on Sunday that he would not have wanted a second strike to kill the survivors, and supported Mr. Hegseth’s denial that he had ordered a second strike.
Ms. Leavitt said Mr. Hegseth had authorized the military commander overseeing the operation to conduct the follow-up strike that killed the survivors. According to The Post, this angered Defense Department officials, who believe that Mr. Hegseth is attempting to scapegoat the military commander, Adm. Frank Bradley.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said Mr. Hegseth “didn’t know about the second attack having to do with two people,” according to the British newspaper The Guardian.
The Former JAGs Working Group, an organization of around 40 retired senior Judge Advocates General, or military lawyers, and legal experts who are scrutinizing the Trump administration and Mr. Hegseth’s actions, was formed in February after Mr. Hegseth fired Army and Air Force JAGs. In a statement on Saturday, the group said it “unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both.”
Last weekend, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, both led by Republicans, opened investigations into the incident, the Senate committee promising in a statement “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
Mr. LaLota, a Republican and veteran of the Navy, was an early endorser of Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign and is a stalwart supporter of the administration’s policies. “Trump critics have made many claims about U.S. actions in the Caribbean under Secretary Hegseth,” he said in a statement provided to The Star, “and I welcome a fact-based, politically neutral review of his decisions as agreed to by Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers,” a Republican representative from Alabama, “and Ranking Member Adam Smith,” a Democratic representative from Washington State.
The congressman did not address a question as to whether he supports Mr. Hegseth’s continued leadership of the Defense Department.
Amid the controversy surrounding the legality of the strikes on vessels in the Caribbean, six Democratic elected officials, all of whom served in the military or intelligence community, issued a video last month in which they took turns reading a statement that military personnel can and must refuse to carry out illegal orders. Among them are Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Representative Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, both of them Navy veterans. A third, Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former C.I.A. officer, previously raised her concern with Mr. Hegseth that the president might deploy military troops to American cities. Mr. Kelly said that the Sept. 2 strike “seems to” be a war crime.
