Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, alleging he had committed high crimes and misdemeanors.
Massie, a Kentucky Republican, accused Hegseth of multiple offenses, criticizing the secretary’s crackdown on the press, his efforts to target Sen. Mark Kelly, and his orders to carry out strikes on the boats of alleged drug smugglers. Much of Massie’s focus was the war in Iran, where he said Hegseth circumvented the War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to get congressional approval in order to enter armed conflicts.
In June — months after the war in Iran began — the House and the Senate approved a resolution directing President Donald Trump to end U.S. military involvement there unless Congress specifically authorized it.
“In all of this, Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to the trust as Secretary of Defense and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States of America,” Massie said on the House floor.
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Massie added that he believes Hegseth “will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law.”
The U.S. has maintained military forces in Iran and the broader region since February.
Massie said Hegseth “knowingly executed and sustained unlawful orders that treated the executive branch as possessing authority to determine when war may be commenced, how long it may be sustained, and whether Congress’s directive to terminate hostilities must be obeyed.”
In response, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson defended Hegseth as a “transformative leader.”
“By every measurable metric, the Department of War is better under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s leadership than before,” Wilson wrote in a statement to The Washington Sun. “The entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first.”
Massie asserted that Hegseth had “weakened nearly every institutional safeguard designed to minimize civilian casualties,” pointing to a February strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, Iran, that killed dozens of children.
The congressman argued that Hegseth “undermined effective journalistic oversight” after the Pentagon imposed harsh restrictions on reporters’ access.
Massie also railed against the Department of Defense’s continued strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. The department faced scrutiny for carrying out double-tap strikes, which are deliberate secondary strikes on vessels, and failing to render aid to any shipwrecked occupants.
Since the Trump administration began striking suspected narco-terrorists in the region last year, the death toll has risen to at least 230 over 70 strikes, according to a Stars and Stripes report on Sept. 10.
Massie said Hegseth subjected “persons merely suspected of criminal conduct to lethal military force without judicial process, without congressional authorization, and without establishing a lawful basis for treating such persons or vessels as military targets.”
This story has been updated with additional comments.
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