(JEWISH VOICE NEWS) Newsmax’s senior judicial analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, said Tuesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should face prosecution for what he described as a “war crime” tied to the deadly U.S. strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in early September.
During an appearance with host Shaun Kraisman, Napolitano criticized the White House’s insistence that the operation was legal, noting that officials have declined to release the Justice Department opinion they say authorizes the president’s anti-narcotics strike authority. “I wish the White House would reveal the laws on which the president is relying,” he said.
Napolitano, who previously worked with Hegseth for years at Fox News, said the order to kill survivors in the water “has absolutely no legal basis.”
“This is an act of a war crime — ordering survivors, whom the law requires be rescued, to instead be killed,” he said. “Everyone involved, from the Secretary of Defense to the admiral to the people who pulled the trigger, should be prosecuted.”
When asked who could bring such charges, Napolitano said active-duty personnel involved could face court-martial, while Congress — Republicans and Democrats alike — appear increasingly alarmed. “The killing is out of hand,” he said, pointing to shifting explanations from Hegseth and the White House: first denying any order was given, then admitting one existed, then claiming it was done in “self-defense.”
Kraisman then played a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asserting that the Sept. 2 strike was lawful and conducted “to protect Americans and vital U.S. interests.” Napolitano rejected that argument, saying the law of armed conflict is explicit. “Survivors have to be rescued. They can’t be killed,” he said.
Leavitt also said President Trump has “the authority to kill narco-terrorists” trafficking drugs toward the U.S. Napolitano dismissed that claim as well. “‘Narco-terrorist’ is a political term, not a legal one,” he said. Labeling suspects as terrorists, he argued, does not justify lethal force unless they are actively engaged in violence.
Kraisman pushed back, suggesting drug traffickers threaten American lives. Napolitano countered that the boat was “1,500 miles from the United States” and physically incapable of reaching American shores.
“These are heavy words,” Napolitano acknowledged. “I’m accusing people of crimes that could lead to incarceration or even execution if enforced to the hilt. I wish it hadn’t happened, but I have to be intellectually honest about what I’m observing.”
Kraisman closed by noting the gravity of Napolitano’s charge and saying Newsmax would continue following the story.
