Welcome to a special topical episode of Talking Feds, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials and special guests for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day.

I'm Harry Littman. We've spent much of the

year exploring the impact of Trump's authoritarian agenda on the Department of Justice. But

there's been a similar and largely overlooked story of degradation playing out in the

Department of Defense, which is many times

as large and certainly no less vital as the DOJ.

Revelations about deadly U.S. airstrikes in the Caribbean are casting a stark light on the dubious

legal underpinnings of Trump's military misadventures.

And the administration keeps shifting its story about the most worrying episode,

a so-called double-tap strike that killed two survivors of an earlier U.S. attack.

A probing investigation by Congress could well reveal shameful illegal

conduct and lead to severe political and legal penalties for the responsible officials.

More generally, Pete Hegseth's cowboyish stewardship of the Defense Department and his

slavish dedication to Trump's policy

priorities have roiled the Pentagon, stripping away honor and integrity in favor of a culture

of sycophancy and unquestioning obedience. As with the DOJ, the decay may be exceptionally difficult to reverse.

To unpack the double-tapped strike, the broader U.S. mission in the Caribbean, and the overall

state of the Department of Defense under Trump and Hegzeth, we turn to a spectacular

group of military and national security experts.

And they are.

Natasha Bertrand, Natasha covers national security for CNN.

She was part of the CNN team that won an Emmy for coverage of Russia's invasion of

...