One former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) officer is accusing President Donald Trump's administration of committing "murder" in international waters.

During a Monday interview with CNN host Boris Sanchez, Dan Maurer — an associate law professor at Northern Ohio University — said the September 2, 2025 strike in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly signed off on the killing of survivors adrift after their boat was hit with a missile (which was carried out by Admiral Frank Mitchell Bradley) was a flagrantly illegal act. Maurer specifically scoffed at the administration's justification that the strike was legal under U.S. and international law.

"I can't be moreclear about how clear the law ison this. Theattack on shipwrecked crewmembers — whether they are narco-terrorists designated by thepresident or not, whetherthey're war criminals or not — itdoesn't matter," he said. "Killing themwhile shipwrecked while they're hors de combat, they're out of thefight, is a war crime."

Maurer went on to say that because the U.S. is not in an officially designated armed conflict, the strike was simply an "extrajudicial killing," or more simply, "murder." He added that nothing in U.S. law or international humanitarian law sanctioned the act, and that it was incumbent on Congress to investigate the attack.

"If the reporting is in factaccurate, what Secretary Hegsethdid was essentially condone, orat least order a murder. What Admiral Bradley did was condoneor at least order a murder. Andeveryone down that chain ofcommand who participated in, whoplanned, who executed thatstrike, including the secondstrike — allegedly killing theshipwreck survivors — committed acrime," he said. "Whether it's a war crimeor simply an offense underfederal law, crimes have beencommitted. And what's scary isthat I doubt very much thatthere will be any kind ofcriminal accountability for anyof those involved under thisadministration."

Sanchez pointed out that the administration argued that the strikes were necessary in order to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S., and that had those bots shipped drugs into the country then there could be potentially thousands of American deaths in the future. Maurer countered that the harm described was "not imminent" and did not justify a self-defense argument.

"These drugs are flowingeventually into the United States, where they were soldillegally, bought illegally,used illegally. Not all of themresult in deaths, nor do gunspurchased illegally and thensold legally or illegally," he said. "... Frankly, theadministration treats using themilitary kind of like they'replaying Call of Duty where thereare no constraints, there are norules, there is noresponsibility, and there is noaccountability. But there arerules in warfare. There arerules in using force, whetherit's a police action or awartime action. And thisadministration hassystematically ignored thoserules, downplayed theirimportance and denigrated therule of law."

Watch the segment below:


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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