BOAT STRIKE BRIEFING: The admiral who ordered the controversial second strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat is set to brief lawmakers Thursday amid mounting scrutiny over the September attack.
Adm. Frank Bradley, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, will provide a classified briefing to members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding the Sept. 2 strikes and broader campaign against drug traffickers. The U.S. military has carried out more than 20 attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and East Pacific in the past three months.
Members of both parties in Congress quickly indicated their plan to investigate after The Washington Post reported last week that the U.S. carried out a second strike on the boat after two people survived an initials strike and were clinging to the wreckage.
The outlet reported that Bradley ordered the second strike with authorization from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "kill everybody." Hegseth has distanced himself from the strike while also defending it as necessary and standing by Bradley's orders.
Several key questions remain ahead of Bradley's briefing, including the legal justification for the second strike, The Hill's Sarah Fortinsky reports. Some lawmakers and former military officials have said the strike could constitute a war crime.
The Pentagon released video of the initial strike soon after it was carried out, as it has done with other strikes, but it hasn't released video of the follow-up strikes from Sept. 2. A U.S. official told The Hill on Wednesday that the military struck the boat a total of four times, twice to kill the 11 on board and twice more to sink the vessel.
Democrats are calling for the missing videos. And President Trump suggested Wednesday that he would support the release.
"I don't know what they have," he told reporters in the White House, "but whatever they have, we'd certainly release. No problem."
The briefing also comes as Hegseth is under renewed scrutiny for a separate controversy in March concerning his discussion of a strike on Houthi targets in Yemen using the Signal app on his personal cell phone.
An inspector general report found Hegseth jeopardized the safety of troops and violated department policy in using his personal phone to discuss the plans. The report has been released to the House and Senate committees overseeing the Pentagon and is set to be released publicly Thursday.
Sources told The Hill that the report determined that if a foreign adversary had intercepted the strike plans, troops clearly would have been put in danger.
The Signal group came to light in March after The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally added to the chat in which the attack plans were discussed.
The Defense Department declared the IG report a "total exoneration" of Hegseth, but Democrats are coming to a different conclusion, with some renewing calls for his resignation over the findings.
▪ The New York Times: What does Hegseth's 'fog of war' comment mean?
▪ The Hill: GOP senator says Hegseth either lying or incompetent.
RWANDA-CONGO AGREEMENT: Trump is hosting a trilateral meeting Thursday with the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to sign a peace agreement that he helped negotiate between the African countries this year.
The leaders of the two countries signed a peace deal facilitated by the U.S. in June to try to bring an end to decades of fighting. But it hasn't stopped violence from continuing between the Congolese government and rebel groups backed by Rwanda.
Trump has pointed to his efforts in working to end the conflict and various others as part of his branding of himself as the "peace president" and his personal campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
NBC News first reported on Wednesday that Trump's name was added to the exterior of the U.S. Institute of Peace building in Washington, D.C. The institute had been targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to slash the size of the government.
"Now, the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, which is both beautifully and aptly named after a President who ended eight wars in less than a year, will stand as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
▪ Reuters: Congo, Rwanda-backed rebels accuse each other of peace violations.
SMITH TESTIFYING: Former special counsel Jack Smith will sit for a deposition with the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 17 after receiving a subpoena from the committee's Republicans for him to testify.
Smith had pushed to testify publicly about his prosecution of the president for his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and retention of classified and sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago. But Republicans rejected that in favor of his testifying behind closed doors.
An attorney for Smith said in a statement that he looks forward to testifying and clearing up "various misconceptions" about his investigations.
Trump and his allies have consistently argued that both criminal cases Smith brought against him, along with the other two he faced, were instances of political prosecution from the Biden administration.
Both cases that Smith brought were dropped after Trump returned to office.
EPSTEIN ISLAND PHOTOS: Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released photos of Jeffrey Epstein's home on Wednesday as the deadline approaches for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its files on the convicted sex offender.
The photos show Epstein's private island in the Caribbean where he was alleged to have trafficked young girls before he died by suicide in 2019. Various bedrooms, his office, bathrooms and the estate's grounds are seen in the images.
The DOJ has just over two weeks left before the deadline to release its documents on Epstein in compliance with the legislation Congress passed and Trump signed last month. But members of both parties have expressed concern that the DOJ may seek a work-around to avoid releasing some documents to the public.
▪ NBC News: Lawmakers ask Attorney General Pam Bondi for update on files.
▪ Business Insider: Epstein estate fights to shield emails with Goldman Sachs lawyer.
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