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Dec 9, 2025
Lawmakers will hear from Navy admiral who ordered attack that killed boat strike survivors
Lawmakers will hear from Navy admiral who ordered attack that killed boat strike survivors
Sentinel and Enterprise
By STEPHEN GROVES and LISA MASCARO, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Navy admiral who reportedly issued orders for the U.S. military to fire upon survivors of an attack on an alleged drug boat is expected Thursday on Capitol Hill to provide a classified briefing to top congressional lawmakers overseeing national security.
The information from Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley, who is now the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, comes at a potentially crucial moment in the unfolding congressional investigation into how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth handled the military operation in international waters near Venezuela. There are mounting questions over whether the strike may have violated the law.
Lawmakers are seeking a full accounting of the strikes after The Washington Post reported that Bradley on Sept. 2 ordered an attack on two survivors to comply with Hegseth's directive to "kill everybody." Legal experts say the attack amounts to a crime if the survivors were targeted, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding accountability.
Bradley will speak to a handful of top congressional leaders, including the Republican chairs and ranking Democrats of the House and Senate committees on Armed Services, and separately to the GOP chairman and Democratic vice chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"This is an incredibly serious matter. This is about the safety of our troops. This is an incident that could expose members of our armed services to legal consequences," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a floor speech Wednesday. "And yet the American public and the Congress are still not hearing basic facts."
As Bradley appears for questions in the classified setting, lawmakers will be seeking answers to key questions: What orders did Hegseth give regarding the operations? And what was the reasoning for the second strike?
Democratic lawmakers are also demanding that the Trump administration release the full video of
