Lawmakers are seeking to withhold a portion of Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if he does not release unedited video of his deadly strikes on boats

The Sept. 2 double-tap strike has been described by legal and military experts as a potential war crime(Image: Getty)

Lawmakers are working to restrict a portion of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel funding unless he provides “unedited video” of the nearly two dozen lethal strikes he has authorized against vessels in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

Hegseth, the Pentagon and the wider Trump administration remain under fire over military operations since September, during which more than 80 individuals have been killed without congressional approval. The administration has declared the U.S. is engaged in “armed conflict” with “narco-terrorists” smuggling lethal drugs into America, yet has offered scant evidence to Congress or the public supporting these assertions.

“Of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2026 for operation and maintenance, defense-wide, and available for the Office of the Secretary of Defense for travel expenses, not more than 75 percent may be obligated or expended” until Hegseth delivers video footage of the strikes “conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command,” according to the National Defense Authorization Act, which the House is expected to vote on this week.

Hegseth has also been directed to provide “overdue quarterly reports regarding executed orders of the Department of Defense” to the Armed Services committees, alongside additional documentation.

Despite conflicting statements by Hegseth regarding his level of knowledge and participation in a subsequent attack against helpless sailors on Sept. 2, legislators have initiated probes to establish whether the U.S. operated within legal bounds, the Express US reported. The Trump administration has tried to pin responsibility for the attack on Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, although Hegseth stood by the decision as being “the right call.”

The explanation of the strike has been broadly unsatisfactory to various members of the national security committees in Congress(Getty)

The follow-up attack on Sept. 2 marked the first assault on a target that the administration claimed was part of an anti-narcotics operation. The operation has subsequently expanded to over 20 documented attacks and more than 80 fatalities.

Rep. Adam Smith revealed after viewing footage of the Sept. 2 event that “the order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat.”

Details regarding the follow-up attack were omitted from a classified briefing to legislators in September in the aftermath of the incident. While it was allegedly revealed later, the justification offered by the department has proven widely inadequate to numerous members of Congress’s national security committees.

The action, characterized by legal and military authorities as a possible war crime, represents one of almost two dozen comparable attacks conducted without congressional approval, which the Trump administration asserted, without proof, are operated by “narco-terrorists” attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

In a candid exchange with a White House reporter in late October, Trump made it clear that he would continue to bypass Congress by authorizing fatal strikes on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, stating, “We’re just gonna kill people.”

Legislators have not explicitly approved the use of military force against the purported drug boats(Getty)

A reporter questioned the president following the military’s ninth strike against a boat allegedly transporting drugs, asking, “Mr. President, if you are declaring war against these cartels and Congress is likely to approve of that process, why not just ask for a declaration of war?”

Trump responded, “I don’t think we’re gonna necessarily ask for a declaration of war.”

“I think we’re just gonna kill people. OK? We’re gonna kill them. They’re gonna be, like, dead,” he added.

A subsequent strike in September resulted in the family of a Colombian man lodging a formal complaint with the premier human rights watchdog in the Americas, claiming his death was an extrajudicial killing. The petition from Alejandro Carranza’s family alleges that the military bombed his fishing boat on Sept. 15, violating human rights conventions.

Legislators have not explicitly approved the use of military force against the purported drug boats. The Republican-dominated Congress has rejected efforts to limit Trump’s authority to participate in the missile campaign, which Hegseth has pledged will persist.

A number of Democrats have demanded Hegseth’s resignation.