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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is likely to be in the hot seat after the midterm elections in November, if Democrats gain control of the House and possibly even the Senate, as many polls suggest.

That legislative majority would give Democrats the power to convene oversight hearings and subpoena witnesses to testify about Hegseth’s prosecution of the war in Iran and handling of deadly strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is likely to be in the hot seat after the midterm elections in November, if Democrats gain control of the House and possibly even the Senate, as many polls suggest.

That legislative majority would give Democrats the power to convene oversight hearings and subpoena witnesses to testify about Hegseth’s prosecution of the war in Iran and handling of deadly strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

Some lawmakers even hope to impeach Hegseth for high crimes and misdemeanors. They accuse the onetime Fox News host of violating two major laws: the War Powers Resolution, which limits how long an unauthorized military conflict can last, and the War Crimes Act, which makes it a federal crime to violate certain international humanitarian laws.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie filed an impeachment resolution against Hegseth in September and is expected to force a vote on the matter when the House returns from its long midterms recess the week after the elections.

In the case of the Iran war, the resolution accuses Hegseth of illegally continuing military strikes against Iran beyond the 60-day clock allowed under the law. He is further accused in the resolution of ordering the extrajudicial killing of over 220 alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific, which even if the narcotics-smuggling charges were true is not grounds for summary execution under U.S. law. The secretary has also been criticized for overseeing secondary strikes on multiple survivors of the boat attacks who were still........

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