Officials in Congress and the Pentagon say the Trump administration is attempting to shield Pete Hegseth from responsibility for a “second strike” to kill survivors on an alleged drug boat by scapegoating a US navy admiral instead.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Monday explicitly named Adm Frank M Bradley as the officer who “directed the engagement”, distancing Hegseth, the Pentagon secretary, from accountability despite a Washington Post report that he ordered the deaths of everyone on the boat.
“Secretary Hegseth authorised Adm Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” Leavitt said, adding: “Adm Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
The White House statement came after Donald Trump said on Sunday he “wouldn’t have wanted that – not a second strike” when asked about the incident, and claimed Hegseth told him “he did not order the death of those two men”. The president added: “And I believe him.”
The administration’s apparent effort to distance Hegseth from the operation has not flown under the radar for some elected officials.
“He is selling out Admiral Bradley and sending chills down the spines of his chain of command, who now know their boss will sell them out if he is taking heat,” said Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator. “A case study in how not to lead.”
The White House’s legal justification for the strikes, outlined in a classified justice department office of legal counsel opinion reviewed by the Guardian, treats the operations as targeting cocaine rather than people – meaning anyone killed on board should be considered an enemy casualty or collateral damage rather than a murder victim.
The reasoning differs sharply from Trump’s public narrative that the strikes are an effort to stop overdose deaths, rather than attacks on a commodity that finances warfare.
Bradley will provide a classified briefing to lawmakers overseeing the military on Thursday. Bipartisan scrutiny has mounted over a report that Hegseth issued a verbal order in September to strike the vessel, and according to the Washington Post, to “kill everybody”.
Democrats have said the allegations, first reported last week by the Washington Post, could amount to a war crime, and Republicans have also voiced their concerns about the legality of the attack on 2 September.
The House and Senate armed services committees have opened investigations into the recent US military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
In her comments to reporters on Monday, Leavitt did not dispute the Washington Post report that there were survivors after the initial strike.
Hegseth posted late on Monday, simultaneously praising the admiral and pointing responsibility in his direction: “Adm Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made – on the September 2 mission and all others since.”
A month after the strike, Bradley was promoted from commander of Joint Special Operations Command to commander of US Special Operations Command.
Concern over the Trump administration’s military strikes against the alleged drug-smuggling boats has been building in Congress, but details of this follow-on strike stunned many lawmakers from both parties and generated stark questions about the legality of the attacks and the overall strategy in the region, particularly toward the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.
The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week’s Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were sceptical. Still, they said the reported attacking of survivors of an initial missile strike posed serious concerns and merited further scrutiny.
Leavitt said Hegseth had spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend.
Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, also spoke over the weekend with the two Republican and two Democratic lawmakers leading the Senate and House armed services committees. He reiterated “his trust and confidence in the experienced commanders at every echelon”, Caine’s office said in a statement.
The statement added that the call focused on “addressing the intent and legality of missions to disrupt illicit trafficking networks which threaten the security and stability of the western hemisphere”.
The Senate majority leader, John Thune, on Monday broadly defended the operations, echoing the Trump administration position that they were necessary to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the US.
Thune said the committees in Congress would look into what happened. “I don’t think you want to draw any conclusions or deductions until you have all the facts,” he said of the 2 September strike. “We’ll see where they lead.”
After the Post’s report, Hegseth said on Friday on X that “fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland”.
“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict – and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” Hegseth wrote.
The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, called Hegseth a “national embarrassment” over his response to critics. Schumer demanded that Hegseth release the video of the strike and testify under oath about what happened.
The Republican senator for Mississippi, Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate armed services committee, pledged that his panel’s investigation would be “done by the numbers”.
“We’ll find out the ground truth,” he said, adding that the ramifications of the report were “serious charges”.
The 2 September strike was one in a series carried out by the US military in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as Trump has ordered the buildup of a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest US aircraft carrier. More than 80 people were killed in the strikes.
Chaos has surrounded Hegseth, who has renamed himself the “war secretary”, in his first year on the job. He was outed for sharing sensitive military information about incoming strikes in Yemen on the messaging app Signal, suffered internal feuding among his senior staff, and has encouraged a paranoia-driven hunt for leakers, which have led to multiple top aides being fired.
A former Pentagon spokesman, John Ullyot – who had been a Trump loyalist – wrote in April that the department was experiencing “total chaos” and “full-blown meltdown”, suggesting Trump should consider removing Hegseth.
Trump has repeatedly defended Hegseth, saying this week that he is “doing a great job”.
