Deirdre Walsh
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
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Hegseth did not agree to an interview with investigators, but submitted written responses.
He noted he has the authority to declassify material, but there was no indication he did before he shared it.
An unredacted version of the report is expected to be released on Thursday.
Cuellar, who has represented his South Texas district since 2004, was indicted in 2024 for bribery and money laundering.
The government charged him and his wife with accepting $600,000 from two foreign entities.
The president announced in a post on social media he was pardoning both of them, saying, quote, you can sleep well tonight, your nightmare is finally over.
He said the Biden administration went after Cuellar because he broke with his party on immigration.
Cuellar thanked Trump, saying the pardon gives him a clean slate.
House Republicans have repeatedly tried to defeat Cuellar.
Several GOP candidates are running against him in 2026.
He said he gave the initial order to strike the boat and then said he learned the details about the second strike a couple of hours later and said it was a decision made by Admiral Frank Bradley, who leads U.S.
Special Operations Command.
While Hegseth stressed he personally didn't make the call for a follow-on strike, he said Bradley had the complete authority to do so.
You know, it's worth noting that Hegseth's comments yesterday are different from his initial response when the Washington Post first reported on these strikes, and he criticized their reporting.
Now he's acknowledging there was the second strike.
President Trump, for his part, said he knew the military took out the boat, but he didn't know whether it was one strike or two or three, and he wasn't involved in it.
Both House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune say they back the move by House and Senate Armed Services Committees to review the boat strikes and expect to get answers.
The Speaker said he wouldn't prejudge anything before they get the facts.