The White House said on Monday that the “double tap” hit targeting survivors of a U.S. strike on a purported drug smuggling vessel in September was legal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley to conduct the mission and that Bradley was the one, not Hegseth, who ordered a follow-up strike on a destroyed vessel that had already been targeted by U.S. forces after it became clear that there were two people who survived.

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