The Pentagon’s top general held a call with senior lawmakers over the weekend to discuss the legality of lethal military strikes around Latin America, as Republican-led panels in both chambers vowed aggressive oversight following revelations that U.S. forces killed the survivors of a targeted boat strike.
The call, announced Monday by the office of Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, occurred after The Washington Post reported Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken order to kill the entire crew of a vessel thought to be ferrying narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, the first of more than 20 such strikes directed by the Trump administration since early September.
When two survivors were detected, the military commander overseeing the operation, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, directed another strike to comply with Hegseth’s order that no one be left alive, people with direct knowledge of the matter told The Post. The Trump administration has said 11 people were killed as a result of the attack.
Caine’s call with the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services committees included a conversation about the Latin America mission’s “intent and legality,” Caine’s office said in its brief account of the exchange. The general also expressed his “trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon,” the readout says. The statement does not identify Bradley or any other military officials by name.
Neither committee has publicly discussed the call. Spokespeople for the four lawmakers involved — Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), and Reps. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama) and Adam Smith (D-Washington) — either declined to comment on the conversation or couldn’t be reached immediately.
A spokesperson for Caine declined to comment beyond the statement issued by his office, saying the general’s communications with Congress are private.
Separately, Hegseth called Wicker early Monday to discuss the September strike and the order to carry it out, according to a person familiar with the matter, speaking like some others on the condition of anonymity due to the matter’s sensitivity. A spokesperson for the defense secretary did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, suggested Monday that Hegseth had spoken with multiple lawmakers “who may have expressed some concerns over the weekend.” She did not identify them, though, and the Pentagon has not disclosed details of the secretary’s outreach to Capitol Hill.
Leavitt also read out a statement affirming that Hegseth had authorized Bradley to conduct the strikes on Sept. 2. Bradley, she added, “worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed.”
The House and Senate committees have opened separate inquiries into the Sept. 2 strike, directing questions to the Pentagon and pledging a full accounting of what occurred. It was not immediately clear what those efforts will entail, though it is within Congress’s authority to seek witness interviews, subpoena evidence, hold closed-door meetings and conduct public hearings.
As the revelations have set off bipartisan alarm, with some lawmakers suggesting the follow-on strike constituted a war crime, President Donald Trump on Sunday came to Hegseth’s defense. The president told reporters that he had discussed the matter with Hegseth, who, Trump said, assured him he did not give an order to kill everybody aboard the boat. “And I believe him,” the president added, “100 percent.”
Legal experts have said that the survivors killed in the strike did not pose an imminent threat to U.S. personnel and thus were illegitimate targets.
Following publication of The Post’s report Friday, Hegseth wrote on social media, “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.” In a separate post appearing to acknowledge the report, he denounced “the fake news” and defended the military’s ongoing operations in Latin America as “lawful under both U.S. and international law.”
The Trump administration has sought to justify its military campaign by arguing that the boats being destroyed are supporting the illicit sale of narcotics responsible for killing tens of thousands of Americans each year. The administration also has designated as “terrorist organizations” several Latin American groups involved in the drug trade.
In a classified memo shared with Congress, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which issues binding legal arguments for the entire administration, has claimed the United States is in a “non-international armed conflict” with cartel groups funding campaigns of violence in America and allied countries, according to people familiar with the document. The memo also argues that U.S. service members involved in the attacks are immune from prosecution, The Post reported previously.
Still, the Defense Department has privately acknowledged to lawmakers that nearly all of the strikes have targeted suspected shipments of cocaine — rather than fentanyl, the leading cause of overdose deaths in America. Moreover, most of the narcotics moved through the Caribbean are headed toward Europe and Western Africa, rather than the United States.
Lawmakers on the Armed Services committees — including top Republicans — have criticized the administration for withholding information related to the strikes and the legal arguments supporting them.
In October, Wicker and Reed published two letters they had sent to the Pentagon weeks earlier requesting the videos and orders documenting the boat strikes, which so far have killed more than 80 people. To date, the Pentagon has not complied — a delay that has surpassed the time required by law for the administration to respond to Congress, said a congressional aide.
Those materials would shed light on the Sept. 2 strike.
The aide said the inquiries being sought by lawmakers now mark the “culmination of the last three months of obfuscation” by the Defense Department.
Dan Lamothe and Alex Horton contributed to this report.
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