December 01, 2025 12:25 PM UTC

What "Illegal Orders," You Ask?

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

As the Department of War and the Justice Department continue their “investigations” into a video featuring six Democratic lawmakers reminding members of the U.S. military of their obligation to refuse illegal orders, the Republican counterargument that no illegal order had ever been issued by the Trump administration, a cornerstone of their case that these six lawmakers should be arrested, tried for sedition, and punished by means up to and including execution, has run into a problem.

The disclosure by the Washington Post over the weekend of what appears to be exactly such an order, which if indeed given by Dudebro of Defense Pete Hegseth would appear to be a grave violation of American and international laws of war:

Hegseth’s order, which has not been previously reported, adds another dimension to the campaign against suspected drug traffickers. Some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people to date — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution.

The alleged traffickers pose no imminent threat of attack against the United States and are not, as the Trump administration has tried to argue, in an “armed conflict” with the U.S., these officials and experts say. Because there is no legitimate war between the two sides, killing any of the men in the boats “amounts to murder,” said Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised Special Operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign.

Seemingly aware of the serious problem giving “no quarter” to the incapacitated survivors of this strike represents for the Trump administration’s already legally-shaky military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, President Donald Trump issued a denial that could presage the tossing of Hegseth overboard:

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has “great confidence” that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not give a spoken order to kill all crew members aboard a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea in September.

Trump said Hegseth told him “he did not say that, and I believe him, 100 percent.”

The problem is that Hegseth himself hasn’t denied that he gave the order, only dismissing the news reports as “fake news” while defending the administration’s justifications for lethal strikes that in every case could have just as easily been non-lethal interdictions of these vessels with the same effect of stopping whatever their cargo is from reaching American shores. Trump is hinging his support for Hegseth on a denial that the facts as reported don’t back up, which also gives Trump an easy way out if firing Hegseth becomes a matter of necessity–followed, we assume, by a pre-emptive pardon to deal with the legalities. Though much like Trump can’t pardon Tina Peters, a pardon for Hegseth won’t protect him from being indicted in The Hague.

In the meantime, although the administration will be loath to admit it if they ever do, Rep. Jason Crow and the rest of the “Sedition Six” appear to be vindicated.