Thomas Massie Filed Eight Articles of Impeachment Against Pete Hegseth and Told No One in Advance So Leadership Couldn't Cancel the Votes. The House Must Act Within Two Days.

Rep. Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, accusing him of defying Congress and illegally continuing the war in Iran. The Kentucky Republican filed the resolution as a privileged measure, which forces the House to take it up within two legislative days, and said he deliberately gave House leadership no warning because they "might have canceled" the voting days if they had known it was coming.

The first three articles accuse Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973. They argue that the Department of War, as the administration renamed the Pentagon, is "waging the Iran war despite no declaration of war, statutory authorization, attack on the United States, or imminent threat," and that the 60-day clock the law imposes on unauthorized hostilities expired without Congress enacting any declaration or extension. "In the 60-day period following said transmission, Congress did not enact any declaration of war," the resolution says. Massie writes that Hegseth "has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary" and "frustrated Congress's ability to exercise its most solemn constitutional responsibility."

A fourth article accuses Hegseth of ignoring the Pentagon's own rules for limiting civilian harm, citing the bombing of an Iranian girls' school in the opening weeks of the conflict. Three more articles concern Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, the Democrat and retired Navy captain whom Hegseth demoted in the reserves after Kelly urged service members to refuse illegal orders. Massie argues that the demotion was retaliation against constitutionally protected speech and an attempt by the executive branch to punish a member of a coordinate branch for conducting oversight. The final article covers military strikes on vessels in the Caribbean, the operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, all of which Massie says were carried out without congressional authorization.

The war began in late February. The major combat phase, which the Pentagon called Operation Epic Fury, ended in early May, and President Trump declared a ceasefire over on July 10, insisting he needs no approval from Congress to keep fighting. The House has since passed several measures to restrict the war, most recently a 220-204 vote on Tuesday directing the president to withdraw U.S. forces, with seven Republicans joining Democrats. The Republican-controlled Senate has blocked most of them and has no plans to take up the latest resolution before the midterms. The Congressional Budget Office said this week that the war had cost $38 billion through August 1 and could add up to $3 billion a month.

Massie's effort is a long shot in a chamber controlled by his own party, but the privileged status of the resolution means Republicans will be forced to vote on it, most likely on a motion to table. The congressman has little left to lose politically: he was defeated in his May primary by Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL backed by Trump, and will leave Congress in January.

The Pentagon dismissed the resolution. Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson called Hegseth a "transformative leader" who has "slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters." Massie has not said when he will call the resolution up, but under House rules leadership cannot keep it off the floor for more than two legislative days once he does.