Last updated on June 7, 2026
Democrat’s House resolution accuses Hegseth of unauthorized war-making, mishandling sensitive military information, obstruction of oversight, and abuse of power
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., filed articles of impeachment Wednesday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, opening a new effort to show that one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent Cabinet officials is a constitutional and political liability.
The seven-page House resolution accuses Hegseth of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and lays out six articles of impeachment. Ansari’s office cast the filing in stark terms.
“Pete Hegseth broke his oath to the Constitution, put U.S. troops at grave risk through the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, engaged in abuse of office and conduct beneath the dignity of his office, and carried out unlawful military actions despite his obligation to refuse,” Ansari said in a press release announcing the measure.
She added that his conduct “meets the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors and warrants immediate removal by Congress.”
The six articles accuse Hegseth of participating in an unauthorized war against Iran, violating the law of armed conflict, mishandling sensitive military information, obstructing congressional oversight, abusing power by politicizing the armed forces, and engaging in conduct that brought disrepute on the United States and its military.
Much of the resolution’s purpose is to place Hegseth at the center of a broader argument about war powers, military accountability and civilian control.
The first article says he participated in and directed the initiation and escalation of armed hostilities against Iran without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization from Congress.
A third article accuses him of gross negligence in handling sensitive military information, including use of “unsecured communications systems like the Signal app” to discuss operational details. That charge relates to a March 2025 incident in which Hegseth used Signal to share information about an aerial raid on Yemen with a reporter for The Atlantic.
The remaining articles accuse Hegseth of violating the law of armed conflict, obstructing congressional oversight, abusing power by politicizing the armed forces, and engaging in conduct said to have brought disrepute on the United States and its military.
Ansari also tied the filing to her own constitutional and personal frame for the issue.
“As the daughter of Iranian immigrants and as someone who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, I know this absolutely cannot continue,” she said. “The stakes for U.S. servicemembers and our national security, the Iranian people and innocent civilians everywhere, and global stability are too high to ignore.”
For now, the filing appears more likely to serve as a political statement than as a vehicle with any obvious clear path through the House. But its appearance on the congressional agenda still matters. Impeachment resolutions can function as pressure tools as much as legislative ones, especially when lawmakers want to force a public argument about constitutional limits, executive power and the conduct of senior officials.
Ansari’s filing places Hegseth under a formal impeachment banner and, in the process, turns a cluster of disputes over war, secrecy and military leadership into a single House document aimed at testing whether those controversies can be translated into an article of constitutional consequence.
Few U.S. cabinet secretaries have ever been impeached. In 2024 the Republican-controlled House invoked the power against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and, in 1876, the House impeached Secretary of War William W. Belknap.
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