Former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Tuesday Secretary of War Pete Hegseth committed a war crime if he ordered survivors of a boat carrying drugs to be killed.
While the White House has said they were acting in the scope of the law with their efforts to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, Napolitano was unconvinced.
"I wish the White House would reveal to us the laws on which the president is relying," Napolitano said on "National Report."
"He says he has an opinion from the Justice Department, but neither the Justice Department nor the White House will offer it for public scrutiny."
"And it gives me no pleasure to say what I'm about to say, because I worked with Pete Hegseth for seven or eight years at Fox News," Napolitano said. "This is an act of a war crime."
Napolitano said the law requires rescuing survivors rather than ordering them to be murdered.
"There's absolutely no legal basis for it," he said.
"Everybody along the line who did it, from the secretary of defense, to the admiral, to the people who actually pulled the trigger, should be prosecuted for a war crime, for killing these two people," Napolitano said.
If anyone was prosecuted, it would be a military court martial.
"I don't know where this is going to go. Republicans in the Congress seem to be as exasperated by it as the Democrats are," Napolitano said.
"I think it's getting beyond politics now. The killing is out of hand," Napolitano continued.
Napolitano also dismissed the White House's claim that it was in self defense.
"Two people in the ocean clinging to a boat to stay alive, and they're going to be killed for self defense," Napolitano said. "That doesn't make any sense."
"The law of armed conflict says survivors have to be rescued," Napolitano added. "They can't be killed.
"It's in the Uniform Code of Military Justice," Napolitano continued.
While the White House says they will kill narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs toward the United States, Napolitano argued that constitutes a war crime since narcoterrorist is not a legal term, it's a political term.
"It gives me no pleasure to do it," Napolitano said. "I'm accusing them of crimes that could incarcerate them or even execute them if this stuff was enforced to the hilt.
"I wish I didn't have to say it, but I have to be intellectually honest about what I'm observing here," Napolitano added.
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Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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