Rep. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, setting up a Hegseth impeachment vote in the House over military action Congress never signed off on.
Video:
The Kentucky Republican read the articles aloud on the House floor right after lawmakers convened at noon. His central charge is that Hegseth abused the power of his office by carrying out what Massie called an “unlawful order to impose hostilities” against Iran.
Impeachment is how the House formally charges a federal official with serious misconduct. If a majority of the House votes to impeach, the case goes to the Senate, where it takes a two thirds vote to remove someone from office.
Most of Massie’s articles lean on the War Powers Resolution, a 1973 law that limits how long American troops can be kept in combat without Congress giving the green light. Massie accuses Hegseth of starting and continuing the conflict in Iran with no declaration of war and no authorization from Congress, of keeping U.S. forces engaged there for more than 90 days without approval, and of continuing the fighting after Congress directed that troops be pulled out.
The remaining articles reach beyond Iran. They accuse Hegseth of unauthorized military action in Venezuela and Yemen, including an alleged operation to capture then Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Another article accuses him of retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona in violation of his free speech rights.
Massie told the chamber that Hegseth “will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”
The Hegseth impeachment resolution is moving fast because of how Massie filed it. He submitted it as a privileged resolution, a designation that lets a member skip the usual committee process and forces the House to take it up within two legislative days. House leaders can still move to table it, which sets the measure aside without a direct vote on impeachment. Either way, every member has to go on record, and that is a hard spot for Republicans heading home to campaign before the November midterms.
The Iran war has drawn heavy criticism since its early days, when U.S. missiles struck a girls’ elementary school and killed as many as 175 people. A preliminary investigation found the military hit the school by accident. The formal inquiry is still open.
Democrats already tried this route. Several House Democrats filed their own articles against Hegseth in April, calling the Iran operation an unauthorized war and accusing him of recklessly endangering service members by sending them into a conflict with no clear objectives and no approval from Congress.
The Hegseth impeachment push hits differently this time because it comes from inside Trump’s own party. Massie has broken with Trump again and again. He voted against Trump’s tax cut bill, led the effort that forced the Justice Department to release its Jeffrey Epstein files, and voted for a resolution to halt the war in Iran, which failed.
Trump has not taken it quietly. At a rally in Massie’s district, he called the congressman “a complete and total disaster” and backed a challenger against him. Massie lost his primary in May and will leave Congress in January, which leaves him free to force votes his party would rather avoid.
Massie has said he never insults Trump by name and keeps his disagreements to policy. His latest disagreement now sits in front of the full House, and lawmakers have two legislative days to decide what to do with it.
