Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing potential criminal charges after a stunning report. After a Washington Post investigation reported that he told U.S. forces to “kill them all” during a September strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, conservative attorney George Conway is openly warning that the former Fox host may have crossed into criminal territory that even Donald Trump cannot shield him from.
The Post detailed an operation near Trinidad that launched Trump’s new anti narcotics air campaign. U.S. intelligence believed 11 men aboard a small vessel were transporting drugs. According to sources, Hegseth issued a spoken directive to leave no survivors, with one insider describing the order bluntly as, “Kill everybody.”
A missile obliterated the boat, leaving a burning smear on the water. When the smoke cleared, two survivors were spotted clinging to debris. Instead of attempting a capture, the SEAL Team 6 commander allegedly ordered a second strike to finish the job, reportedly to make sure the operation matched Hegseth’s instructions and both men were killed in the water.
Conway, who has been one of the president’s fiercest legal critics, did not mince words on MS NOW’s The Weekend. He said Hegseth may be staring down an array of potential criminal charges for what he described as cold blooded murder.
“There is no war between us, Venezuela and these people were not sailors or soldiers fighting with weapons against us, so that the law of war doesn’t even [apply],” he said. “You don’t even get to the law of war. But even if it were, even if these guys were a naval ship armed to the teeth and the ship was blown up and these guys were in the water, firing against them would be a violation of the laws of war.”
.@SecWar — you will be held accountable for illegal orders you give.
This demands Congressional investigation, and the unredacted video of the strike and radio recordings of the orders given need to be shared with Congress and the American people immediately. https://t.co/l0Q2M7XMSg
— Congressman Eugene Vindman (@RepVindman) November 29, 2025
He was even sharper when addressing the second strike that killed the survivors. “No matter how you look at this, you can apply civilian law, military law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, international law, foreign law, domestic law, federal law, state law. No matter what legal regime you apply to, the second strike, it’s murder. Period,” he added. “It’s not even an argument, that’s how outrageous this is.”
What makes this more ominous for Hegseth is that Conway’s point goes beyond domestic politics. A Trump pardon has no power over foreign courts or international legal bodies. If the victims were not combatants, and the second strike is found to violate humanitarian protections for shipwrecked survivors, Hegseth could potentially have breached international law.
The Trump administration continues to defend the mission as legitimate without providing proof. Hegseth has dismissed the allegations as politically charged reporting and doubled down on social media, promoting the strike as part of an effort to wipe out “narco-terrorists.” Trump has praised him for taking a tougher approach in the region. The United Kingdom and other allies have reportedly paused some intelligence sharing over fears that the operation may have violated international laws.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has signaled that it intends to investigate the mission closely, a rare bipartisan acknowledgement that the “kill them all” directive is more than a political scandal.
