“No… secretary of defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations,” said Hegseth, who is facing impeachment for allegedly carrying out unlawful military operations.

  • hitstun@feddit.onlineEnglish
    19·
    2 days ago

    A pardon can’t protect Hegseth from being impeached by Congress and removed from office. It does protect him from going to jail.

    What if another country came in, kidnapped him, and delivered him to the Hague and stand trial. Trump and Hegseth made that OK to do.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        It would protect him from being convicted for specific crimes. In the past (I wish I had a cite but I just woke up) pardons have been rejected by the courts for being too general.

    • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
      2·
      2 days ago

      Trump and Hegseth made that OK to do.

      Trump escalated it, but it actually goes back to Clinton if not before. From Wikipedia:

      According to Clinton administration official Richard Clarke:

      ‘extraordinary renditions’, were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgment of the host government … The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: ‘Lloyd says this. Dick says that.’ Gore laughed and said, ‘That’s a no-brainer. Of course it’s a violation of international law, that’s why it’s a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.’

      It escalated under Bush and continued under Obama, and now we’re at a point where they’ve straight up abducted a head of state.