Hegseth’s Illegal Orders

In the last 3 months, the U.S. has conducted more than 20 strikes in the Caribbean  and Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing dozens of civilians in small boats without bringing charges or a shred of due process. The military has also been building up a show-of-force presence off the coast of Venezuela, a creeping escalation of provocations toward the country many Trump administration officials have been eyeing for regime change. 

Domestically, meanwhile, Trump has deployed the National Guard to and federalized local law enforcement agents in several major cities, to more aggressively beat back those exercising their First Amendment rights by protesting ICE raids. 

Now six Democratic lawmakers, all veterans of the military or CIA, are under fire for a collective statement urging active servicemembers to refuse to follow illegal orders. Trump has called for the congressmembers to be tried for sedition, punishable by death. 

Is drone striking unarmed vessels in international waters a war crime – or just plain murder? Is the Trump administration violating the First Amendment by threatening members of Congress for telling soldiers they can refuse illegal orders? Should Secretary of War Pete Hegseth be impeached and tried? 

To explore these complex legal questions and Congressional efforts to hold our rogue national security state accountable, Defending Rights & Dissent will host a livestreamed discussion between Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and Chip Gibbons, our Policy Director and author of a forthcoming history of FBI abuses of power. 

• Read Marjorie at Truthout on soldiers and illegal orders

Join us Thursday, December 11th, at 3pm ET / 12pm PT, live on YouTube or on Twitter.