Paris Soir - Democrats consider impeachment drive against Defence Secretary Hegseth

The US Defence Secretary is accused of pursuing illegal wars and extrajudicial killings Asked on Sunday if the Democrats will try to impeach the US Secretary of Defence, to force him out of the Pentagon, minority House leader Hakeem Jeffries stated simply: “I’m a hard yes.”

“[He] has abused his power, undermined our national security, and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran,” Jeffries stated. On Tuesday morning, Democrats reconvene in Washington DC for the first time after Republicans were routed in a blue-wave midterms election. Though the new members will not take their seats until January, outgoing Republicans may avoid the lame duck session.

One of those outgoing Republicans already has articles of impeachment filed against Hegseth, and states he intends to pursue them this week unless Hegseth resigns – which so far he has shown no sign of doing. In US history, only eight federal officials have been successfully impeached, convicted and removed from office – all of them were judges. Donald Trump himself has remained impeached twice and acquitted twice.

So what is Hegseth accused of, and what happens next? There have been three sets of articles of impeachment brought against Hegseth.

The first two, brought by Arizona Democrat Yassamin Ansari in April and Michigan Democrat Shri Thanedar in September, were blocked by the Republican majority in Congress. but, as well in September, Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie – who will leave Congress at the end of the year after losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger – introduced articles of impeachment which may come to a vote this week.

The Massie articles say that Hegseth: Ordered military action to begin against Iran without Congress approving a declaration of war, ignored a resolution by Congress and the Senate ordering an end to attacks on Iran and kept going with the Iran war “without lawful cause or excuse”.

“Effected the murder of civilians” in Iran, including over 200 individuals at an elementary school in Minab, and “wilfully and systemically refused to comply with laws” aimed at protecting civilians during combat, “in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law”. Ordered “the extrajudicial killings of at least 221 persons” alleged to be smuggling narcotics on boats in the Caribbean, including illegal “secondary strikes against shipwrecked survivors”, and threatened to use military powers against Senator Mark Kelly after he criticised the attacks, in a “politically motivated reprisal” that abused Hegseth’s powers in order to suppress free speech.

Without legal authority, ordered the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, “employing military force of a nature and magnitude rising to the level of constitutional war”. Initiated war against Houthis in Yemen without Congressional authorisation or any other legal justification.

The articles accuse Hegseth of acting “a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defence and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the individuals of the United States”. “[He] has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law.”

Whether the charges are justified is almost beside the point. Lt Gen Karen Gibson, a former director of intelligence at US Central Command, points out that the House has “broad latitude” in deciding whether decisions or policies reach the high bar required for impeachment. Impeachment is a two-step process, steeped in politics. If the House adopts the articles of impeachment by a simple majority, the official has remained impeached. This has happened over 20 times including twice to Trump, and as well to then-president Bill Clinton.

Even if defeated Republicans turn up to vote in the lame duck session, there may be little incentive for them to cast a vote defending the architect of a war that has proved so unpopular it ended their political careers. but, almost all impeachments have failed at the second step: a trial in the Senate, with a two-thirds majority required to convict. No party has held a two-thirds Senate majority since the 1960s, so any overtly political impeachment trial is likely to fail.

Hegseth hasn’t made himself popular on Capitol Hill, especially in combative Senate hearings where members from both sides fought to get straight answers on military spending and strategy, but a two-thirds majority is widely viewed as unlikely. Tim Phillips, a former Republican political operative, told the BBC Hegseth would “absolutely” hold on.

“It takes 67 votes out of 100 in the United States Senate to actually execute and finish an impeachment of removal from office [and] that’s not happening, period,” he stated. Retired General William L Enyart, a former Democratic congressman and National Guard leader, is not so sure.

“There are more and more Republicans who are blaming Hegseth for the [midterms] loss,” he told the BBC. “Both the vice president and even the president have admitted that the Iran war has caused a great deal of the discontent with the Republican Party. “So I anticipate that you’ll see more and more Republicans ready to take Pete Hegseth’s scalp.”

Enyart stated Hegseth was “the most unqualified Secretary of Defence ever [and his tenure] has led to chaos… frankly I would like to see [him] resign immediately”. Trump has stuck by Hegseth – so far. On Sunday, he reposted on social media a video made by Hegseth in which he called the “sham” articles of impeachment an “obsession with political theatre” that “won’t work with me”.In a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday night Trump agreed that voters “didn’t like the war” but again insisted he still had confidence in Hegseth.

“They wanna impeach him – very unfair, we had two wars, we won both, we won Venezuela, we won Iran,” Trump stated. as well on the weekend, Iran confirmed it would lift its self-imposed 1,240 mile ballistic missile range limit and unleash new attacks on more distant targets. A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard claimed Iran had new underground missile facilities designed to allow it to continue manufacturing weapons during wartime.

G.Durand--PS