WASHINGTON (TNND) — The man the White House said is responsible for a follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, killing two survivors, is expected on Capitol Hill on Thursday to provide a classified briefing to top congressional lawmakers overseeing national security.
On Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized U.S. Navy Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley to conduct the follow-up strike, who “worked well within his authority and the law.”
“Adm. Bradley worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the U.S. was eliminated,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
She also pushed back on the report from the Washington Post, which claimed Hegseth gave a spoken directive for the second strike.
“The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water,” part of the report read.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are seeking a full accounting of the strikes, with some even suggesting it could be a war crime.
Democratic lawmakers are also demanding that the Trump administration release the full video of the Sept. 2 attack, as well as written records of the orders and any directives from Hegseth. While Republicans, who control the national security committees, have not publicly called for those documents, they have pledged a thorough review.
“The investigation is going to be done by the numbers,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We’ll find out the ground truth.”
Bradley will speak to a handful of top congressional leaders, including the Republican chairs and ranking Democrats of the House and Senate committees on Armed Services, and separately to the GOP chairman and Democratic vice chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
2 more narco-terrorists killed in latest kinetic strike, Hegseth says{ } (Video: Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth){ }
“This is an incredibly serious matter. This is about the safety of our troops. This is an incident that could expose members of our armed services to legal consequences,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday. “And yet the American public and the Congress are still not hearing basic facts.”
President Donald Trump defended Bradley and said that Hegseth was satisfied with the work he did.
“I wasn’t involved in it,” Trump said. “I knew they took out a boat, but I would say this. They had a strike. I hear that the gentleman in charge of that is an extraordinary person.”
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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.