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“Kill everybody” on board. That’s what the Washington Post alleges that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commanded in a September 2 missile strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela. After a missile exploded the boat, the Post article says, commanders saw drone footage of two survivors clinging to the wreck. The commander overseeing the attack ordered a second missile strike — called a “double-tap” — allegedly to comply with Secretary Hegseth’s instructions. The move is illegal under the Pentagon’s manual on laws of armed conflict.
The Independent spoke with House Representative Salud Carbajal, who represents Santa Barbara County.
“If we were at war, this would be a war crime,” Carbajal said, later adding, “You don’t kill people no longer posing a threat.”
But, he said, given that only Congress can declare war (and it hasn’t), the strike is an “extrajudicial killing,” or murder.
Secretary of War Hegseth has denied the claims that he issued the order, calling them “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory” in a post on X.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that there were two strikes on the boat.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Hegseth blamed the “fog of war” in a cabinet meeting, saying he did not see any survivors in the water in the smoldering wreckage. He said he did not stay for the second strike and that Admiral Frank Bradley, the admiral in charge, made the right call in issuing it.
Since September, the United States has blown up at least 21 boats off the coast of Venezuela in what the Trump administration said is armed conflict with drug cartels. The “armed conflict” designation gives the president wartime powers, allowing him to use military force. The administration has not released evidence that the boats struck are engaged in drug trafficking. Strikes have killed more than 80 people.
Carbajal said that the Trump administration has offered contradictory claims on what happened — as well as whether the U.S. was engaged in “war” with cartels.
Carbajal also pointed to President Trump’s pardoning of Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted for importing cocaine and weapons into the U.S. The Justice Department said that Hernández helped smuggle more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States after his conviction. Hernández was freed from federal prison this week.
Rep. Carbajal said there’s a bipartisan initiative to investigate the allegations against Hegseth. But, he said, there’s only about two weeks until Congress goes on winter recess — a tight timeline.
Carbajal said that if Congress finds that Hegseth is guilty of issuing the orders for a second strike to kill survivors, he will be tried by the Trump administration’s Justice Department. It’s unclear how the department would handle the case.
The allegations against Hegseth come on the heels of a viral video from six Democratic lawmakers last month. The lawmakers, all veterans, spoke directly to active military members and members of the intelligence branches, saying they can and must refuse illegal orders. The fallout from the video was swift, with President Trump calling the lawmakers “traitors” and saying their behavior was “punishable by death.” The Pentagon declared it would investigate Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a speaker in the video, and the FBI launched investigations into all six lawmakers. Carbajal said he was not aware of the video beforehand.
On Sunday, Kelly said the Armed Services Committee will put military officials under oath on the alleged strikes. Carbajal is also a member of the House’s Armed Services Committee, a committee responsible for oversight of the Department of War.
