By Natalie Ogami/Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Phoenix, plans to file articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, accusing him of violating U.S. law and the Geneva Convention.
“Only Congress has the power to declare war, not a rogue president or his lackeys,” Ansari said in a statement announcing the impeachment push. “Hegseth’s reckless endangerment of U.S. servicemembers and repeated war crimes … are grounds for impeachment and removal from office.”
It is not uncommon for House members to draft articles of impeachment, but only two Cabinet members have ever actually been impeached. One resigned before trial in the Senate. The other effort died before trial.
Her announcement on Monday came on the heels of President Donald Trump’s threat on Sunday to bomb Iranian infrastructure.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day and Bridge Day,” he said in a profane Easter message directing Iran’s leaders to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Comply, “you crazy bastards or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!” he posted on Truth Social.
Since the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, Hegseth has publicly disavowed the law of war, which makes targeting civilian infrastructure a crime.
“America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history,” he told reporters March 2. “No stupid rules of engagement … no politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.”
One month into Trump’s second term, Hegseth gutted the Pentagon’s Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response office, which oversaw policy to limit risk to noncombatants, and a related center focused on the protection of civilians.
On Feb. 28, a Tomahawk missile struck an elementary school in Minab, killing over 160 children and teachers. U.S. officials denied any intention of striking a school. A preliminary U.S. inquiry indicated that outdated target data had been used.
On March 7, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, accused the U.S. of bombing a desalination plant on Qeshm Island that provided water for 30 villages. The U.S. denied that.
Those strikes, Ansari said, are grounds for Hegseth’s impeachment. Congress is on Easter recess this week.
Hegseth has been polarizing since his nomination, which the Senate confirmed on a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance.
Under the Constitution, Congress can impeach and remove the president and Cabinet members for “high crimes and misdemeanors” – a phrase that Congress itself gets to define.
Over 100 experts in international law signed a letter last week condemning Hegseth for declaring that U.S. forces will provide “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies,” despite Defense Department policy and domestic and international laws requiring quarter – taking prisoners rather than killing helpless or defeated enemy combatants.
They called his dismissal of ordinary rules of engagement “profoundly alarming.”
“Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution requires the executive branch to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, not sabotaged or scorned,” Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and former associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration who did not sign that letter, said by email. “Hegseth has flouted that obligation in committing war crimes in violation of the War Crimes Act.”
While many legal scholars agree that Hegseth has violated international law, his impeachment is unlikely as long as Democrats remain a minority in the House. Conviction in the Senate is also unlikely, because that requires a two-thirds vote and Republicans control 53 of 100 seats.
One other House Democrat had previously filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who began trying to impeach Trump early in the president’s first term.
In December, Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar accused Hegseth of murder and “extrajudicial killings” related to deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean last September.
Thanedar’s resolution also accuses Hegseth of mishandling classified information about an impending military operation in Yemen in March 2025, after an aide inadvertently added a journalist to a group chat on Signal.
In 1876, the House impeached Secretary of War William Belknap for taking over $40,000 in bribes. He resigned just before the vote in hopes of averting impeachment. The Senate acquitted him on all five articles.
In 2024, the GOP-controlled House impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on a 214-213 vote. The articles alleged that he had endangered the public by “willfully and systemically” refusing to enforce immigration laws and by failing to control the border.
The Senate, controlled by Democrats at the time, killed the Mayorkas impeachment without a trial after finding the allegations fell well short of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
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