Retired US Army JAG officer says Trump admin committed 'murder'

Retired U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps

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 more clear about how clear the law is on this. The attack on shipwrecked crew members — whether they are narco-terrorists designated by the president or not, whether they're war criminals or not — it doesn't matter," he said. "Killing them while shipwrecked while they're hors de combat, they're out of the fight, 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 fact accurate, what Secretary Hegseth did was essentially condone, or at least order a murder. What Admiral Bradley did was condone or at least order a murder. And everyone down that chain of command who participated in, who planned, who executed that strike, including the second strike — allegedly killing the shipwreck survivors — committed a crime," he said. "Whether it's a war crime or simply an offense under federal law, crimes have been committed. And what's scary is that I doubt very much that there will be any kind of criminal accountability for any of those involved under this administration."

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 flowing eventually into the United States, where they were sold illegally, bought illegally, used illegally. Not all of them result in deaths, nor do guns purchased illegally and then sold legally or illegally," he said. "... Frankly, the administration treats using the military kind of like they're playing Call of Duty where there are no constraints, there are no rules, there is no responsibility, and there is no accountability. But there are rules in warfare. There are rules in using force, whether it's a police action or a wartime action. And this administration has systematically ignored those rules, downplayed their importance and denigrated the rule of law."