Hegseth’s Escape Plan Begins. The White House Just Pointed the Finger at Admiral Bradley.

Congress smells a cover-up. The Pentagon is furious. And the Trump White House just publicly isolated a career Navy SEAL to shield Pete Hegseth from a war crimes inquiry.

The Trump administration has entered the phase every scandal eventually reaches. The walls tighten. Investigators circle. Lawyers whisper. And someone gets positioned to take the fall.

This time, it is Admiral Frank M. Bradley, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command. A man who has spent decades avoiding the spotlight is now being shoved into it by a White House that appears more focused on protecting Pete Hegseth than protecting the truth.

According to new reporting from The Washington Post, the administration did not just attempt to redirect scrutiny. Officials explicitly framed Bradley as the one who carried out the second strike that killed two unarmed survivors in the Caribbean boat attack on September 2. That strike is the center of a growing criminal inquiry on Capitol Hill, and multiple legal experts have already stated that killing defenseless survivors is unlawful under every theory of armed conflict. It meets the textbook definition of a war crime.

Congress knows this. The Pentagon knows this. And now the White House is scrambling.

A Scapegoat is Being Built in Real Time

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Bradley “worked well within his authority” while executing Hegseth’s authorization to conduct the strike. What she did not say, however, was even more telling. She never clarified whether Hegseth’s spoken order to leave no survivors was the catalyst for the second missile.

Inside the Pentagon, officials immediately understood what Leavitt was doing. According to the reporting, the reaction was explosive. One senior military official described it as:

“Protect Pete bullsh*t.”

Another warned it was the administration “throwing service members under the bus.” And beneath the surface, there is rising panic among civilian staff who believe Hegseth intends to wash his hands completely and let Bradley absorb every consequence.

It would not be the first time a political appointee tried to outsource blame onto the uniformed military. But doing so here is especially egregious because Hegseth is the one who issued the spoken directive. Bradley executed his chain of command.

This is not speculation. This is the documented timeline.

Congress Is Preparing for a Knife Fight

Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican and chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is not buying the White House’s attempt to reframe the story. Wicker has now requested every video, audio recording, and written order associated with the strike. He has already spoken with Hegseth, General Dan Caine, and intends to interview Bradley directly.

That step is significant. Lawmakers do not call in a four-star to “talk” unless they suspect something is wrong with the official narrative.

Behind closed doors, House and Senate military committees have already launched parallel inquiries. Staff described the Pentagon’s three-month pattern of stonewalling as “obfuscation,” and said the effort to force transparency is now reaching a tipping point.

Congress understands exactly what this fight is really about. If Hegseth issued an unlawful order, then the chain of command is contaminated from the top.

And that means accountability is not optional. It is required by law.

Legal Experts Are Already Ringing the Alarm Bell

A coalition of former military lawyers and senior commanders issued a public statement that leaves no room for interpretation. In operations like this, defenseless survivors are not combatants. They are protected persons. Killing them is illegal under U.S. military law and under the Geneva Conventions.

Their conclusion is damning:

“There are no other options. These acts are war crimes or murder.”

The Trump administration has attempted to justify the Caribbean campaign by claiming it is a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels. That argument is flimsy on its best day and fraudulent on its worst. Most of the narcotics targeted were cocaine shipments bound for Europe and West Africa, not fentanyl bound for the United States. Even the Pentagon privately admitted this to Congress.

The legal defense collapses under its own weight. Which is why the administration is trying to pivot the blame.

Why Bradley Is the Perfect Patsy

Admiral Frank M. Bradley is a Navy SEAL with decades in black-ops units. He rarely appears in public. He has no political base, no media profile, and no natural allies in Washington’s gladiatorial politics. His life has been operational silence. That makes him the ideal scapegoat.

The White House knows this.

They are betting that if there must be a head on the table, Congress will accept a career operator rather than a Cabinet secretary.

But that calculation is beginning to backfire.

Military officials have rallied around Bradley. Lawmakers are furious at the evasions and contradictions coming from the administration. And even Hegseth’s own civilian appointees are reportedly alarmed enough to consider resigning.

The question is not whether this scandal will escalate. It already has.

The real question is who will be left standing when the truth comes out.

Conclusion

This is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration recognizes the legal threat closing in around them. The moment the White House publicly isolates a decorated four-star while protecting a political appointee, the cover-up stops being subtle. It becomes visible in broad daylight.

Congress now has the evidence. Investigators have the timeline. Military officials have had enough.

And Hegseth has finally reached the point where every move he makes telegraphs fear.

Admiral Bradley is being positioned to take the fall. The question is whether Washington will let that happen.

References

Robertson, N., & Copp, T. (2025, December 1). Hegseth, with White House help, tries to distance himself from boat strike fallout. The Washington Post.

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